Airplane-food cooks keeping Saigon’s frontline medical staff fed
Tuesday, March 24, 2020, 16:35 GMT+7
As medical personnel stationed at Ho Chi Minh City’s airport are exerting themselves to fight the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic, the SASCO Inflight Service Center (SASCO ISC) has stepped in to make sure the unsung heroes are well fed.
SASCO ISC, a unit of the Southern Airports Services Joint Stock Company (SASCO) which operates in the airport commercial service industry at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, has been cooking lunches and dinners for medical staff on duty at the airdrome since the outbreak began.
The meals are prepared at SASCO ISC’s professional aviation catering chain, with a wide variety of menus that include Halal-certified meals for Muslim passengers.
Besides, SASCO ISC also serves juice and milk, helping to enhance the medical staff’s immune systems to fence off diseases during the stressful working hours.
Dang Le Phuong, an inspector from the International Health Quarantine Center of Ho Chi Minh City, said eating hot and delicious meals cooked by SASCO ISC gives her peace of mind to concentrate on anti-epidemic efforts.
“They overcame the fear of infection [to] express their care for us through the meals,” Phuong told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.
“Their action is so kind that it warms our hearts and keeps us motivated amid the pandemic,” Phuong said.
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| A SASCO ISC staff member prepares meals for medical workers at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in this undated photo. Photo: T.Giang / Tuoi Tre |
Ho Chi Minh City’s health authorities have been deploying staff from the city’s International Health Quarantine Center and Center for Disease Control to Tan Son Nhat to carry out medical quarantine and oversee health declaration.
All incoming travelers to Vietnam are quarantined for 14 days as per a new regulation that took effect from March 21.
At times, medical workers on duty at the southern airdrome have to deal with up to 7,000 passengers daily and sample 500 travelers at a time. Some reportedly have to walk and stand their feet for 12 hours on end.
Vietnam has confirmed 123 cases of COVID-19 infection, of whom 17 had already been released from the hospital by Friday last week.
No death related to the disease has been reported in the Southeast Asian country.
Ho Chi Minh City has confirmed 30 COVID-19 patients to date, three of whom have walked out of the hospital free of the virus.
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