Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Health has reactivated the campaign to protect people in high-risk groups from Covid-19, including those at the age of over 50, those with underlying diseases and pregnant women.
The rate of people dying from Covid-19 in Vietnam is at 0.37 percent, still higher than the rate from other infectious diseases which is at 0.09 percent, said a senior health official.
Authorities in 21 districts and Thu Duc city have reported that they are managing 213,773 people in the high-risk group including people over 65 years old and people with pre-existing medical conditions; moreover, some 102,153 people have been undergoing screening tests; thereby, roughly 1,253 people have detected to contract Covid-19.
The health sector in HCMC has prepared a plan to deploy 10,000 beds, including 1,000 ICU beds for Covid-19 patients. The Hospital for Tropical Diseases is assigned to be the highest-level hospital to treat severe and critical Covid-19 patients.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh requested heads of steering committees for Covid-19 epidemic prevention and control, chairpersons of people's committees in provinces and cities to strictly make statistics of all people in high-risk groups and households with people having underlying medical conditions to monitor them.
According to Chief of Office of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health Nguyen Thi Huynh Mai, the city Steering Committee for Epidemic Prevention and Economic Recovery is working with the Department of Health to closely monitor the epidemic situation in the city trying to overcome the peak of coronavirus wave in the next two weeks.
The Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control (HCDC), on February 20, informed that it had just detected a new cluster of Covid-19 cases at a monastery in Go Vap District. The health sector quickly implemented infection control measures, notifying students for epidemiological investigation and testing.
Nguyen Van Nen, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, said that HCMC’s new normal - that means city dwellers are living with Covid-19, even with the new strain Omicron. Therefore, city leaders are required to have a new mindset.
The People's Committee in Ho Chi Minh City has just decided to approve the Health Strategy in the new normal state of flexible adaptation and effective control of the Covid-19 epidemic in the city to ensure safety for people's health.
Vietnam hopes to provide anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment to about 160,000 people living with HIV/AIDS this year, said Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam.
The Ministry of Health has drafted three alternative plans to vaccinate people in high-risk groups against swine flu, a health official said October 21.
Swine flu deaths have occurred in Vietnam because patients took Tamiflu pills too late, a health official said at a meeting held by the National Steering Board on Flu Prevention in Humans in Hanoi September 16.
