Da Nang has welcomed dozens of doctors, nurses, and other forms of support from several localities, including the three big cities of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Hai Phong, in its battle against a local COVID-19 outbreak.

Da Nang chairman Huynh Duc Tho on Tuesday asked for assistance to help health workers in seperate documents sent to leaders in the northern city of Hai Phong and the south-central province of Binh Dinh.

The central city, which is now the outbreak epicenter of COVID-19 in Vietnam with 158 active local infections and six deaths as of Wednesday morning, has struggled with a shortage of medical personel as many local doctors, nurses, and medical technicians are in full or partial isolation while three hospitals and medical facilities in the city have been placed on lockdown due to a connection with coronavirus patients.

In response to Tho’s call, Hai Phong sent eight doctors and 25 nurses to Da Nang on Tuesday evening.

Binh Dinh Province plans to assign ten doctors and 15 nurses and medical technicians to help Da Nang, the provincial deputy chairman Nguyen Tuan Thanh said on Wednesday morning. The team is expected to leave for Da Nang on Thursday morning.

Likewise, a quick response team from Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City left for the hard-hit central city on Tuesday, the hospital’s director Dr. Nguyen Tri Thuc said on the same day.

In addition, Ho Chi Minh City’s University Medical Hospital and Hospital for Tropical Diseases have both reviewed their human resources specializing in infectious diseases and rehabilitation to help Quang Nam Central General Hospital in the namesake central province, which is treating patients with severe COVID-19 infection from Da Nang.

Meanwhile, the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Hanoi provided VND1 billion (US$43,300) in support of Da Nang and sent 100,000 medical masks and 224 bottles of hand sanitizer to the coastal city.

The committee also granted Quang Nam, which has 46 active cases and two casualties, VND1 billion.

The Ministry of Health and top hospitals in the country, including Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi and Hue Central Hospital in central Thua Thien-Hue Province, have worked closely together to support Da Nang in terms of disease prevention and control, testing and treatment, according to chairman Tho.

Vietnam has documented 672 COVID-19 cases, with 378 recoveries and eight deaths, since the pandemic first hit in January. Three hundred and eight of the cases were imported and quarantined immediately upon arrival.

More than 120,000 are under quarantine — including over 97,000 practicing self-quarantine at home — for COVID-19 in the Southeast Asian country, according to a Ministry of Health update on Wednesday morning.

The Southeast Asian country ended its streak of 99 days without a local transmission on July 25 with the detection of a 57-year-old male patient in Da Nang.

Since then, 224 community-based cases linked to the central city outbreak have been documented nationwide.

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