Many hospitals in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have run out of beds as an increasing number of children have been infected with various respiratory diseases like COVID-19, influenza, bronchitis, and pneumonia.

Nguyen Thanh Nam, director of the Pediatric Center of Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi, said that the facility has been providing treatment for about 130 young patients with respiratory diseases such as flu, nasopharyngitis, pharyngitis, bronchitis, and pneumonia over the past month.

The same situation was recorded at the Vietnam National Children's Hospital and National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in the capital city.

On Saturday, P.V.Q. took his one-year-old son to a private hospital, where the boy was diagnosed with pneumonia.

The young patient needed hospital admission but the infirmary had already run out of beds.

Q. then brought the boy to the Vietnam National Children's Hospital, but the facility was also full of patients.

In Ho Chi Minh City, Children’s Hospital 1, Children’s Hospital 2, and Ho Chi Minh City Children's Hospital have reported a sharp increase in young patients with respiratory illnesses.

Children’s Hospital 1 is providing treatment for about 200 children with respiratory diseases, said Tran Anh Tuan, head of the hospital’s respiratory department.

However, the respiratory department only has 120 beds, Tuan continued.

“Child patients with respiratory diseases usually spike between August and November each year,” the doctor explained.

“Parents should not be too worried and instead focus on preventing the diseases and caring for their children during this period.”

Due to the changeable weather and high humidity in the air, it is easier for children to have conditions such as coughing, a fever, bronchiolitis, and pneumonia.

Bronchiolitis is more common in children under six years of age, especially those under six months old, according to Dr. Tuan.

Common symptoms in the first stage are a runny nose, mild coughing, and fever for one to two days.

Bronchiolitis often causes prolonged coughing, he continued, adding that the treatment must be persistent as antibiotics are not effective against this disease.

COVID-19 risks loom large as school year starts

The number of coronavirus patients at Children’s Hospital 2 has doubled over the past two weeks, according to Do Chau Viet, who is in charge of COVID-19 treatment at the infirmary.

About three patients need hospitalization on a daily basis, mostly due to their underlying conditions.

Others have mild symptoms and are recommended to be quarantined and treated at home, Viet elaborated.

More children have been infected with COVID-19 in Ho Chi Minh City in recent days, the municipal Department of Health said, adding that most of them have not been vaccinated.

As of Saturday, only 51.2 percent of children aged five to under 12 in the metropolis had been inoculated against the coronavirus.

The health sector considered this ratio to be worrisome, especially in the context that the cases are rebounding and children are about to return to school.

Parents are recommended to take their children to local vaccination sites to lower the risk of COVID-19 infection when the new school year begins.

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