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Ho Chi Minh City to hold COVID-19 response drill

Ho Chi Minh City to hold COVID-19 response drill

Sunday, January 15, 2023, 17:27 GMT+7
Ho Chi Minh City to hold COVID-19 response drill
A medical worker takes samples from a COVID-19 case who is put under quarantine at a field hospital in Ho Chi Minh City for COVID-19 testing. Photo: Xuan Mai / Tuoi Tre

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health will conduct a drill to respond to possible worse developments of the COVID-19 pandemic during the upcoming Lunar New Year, or Tet, holiday on Tuesday.

The municipal Department of Health has issued a statement on the preparation of all possible resources to admit and treat COVID-19 patients amid the complicated developments of the pandemic in the world with the appearance of new Omicron sub-variants.

In the statement, it revealed a plan to conduct the drill based on a scenario in which the city detects a new Omicron sub-variant between January 20 and 26.

As a result, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 cases increases by three to four times with most of them showing symptoms. The number of seriously-ill patients also rises.

Up to 50 out of 70 ICU beds at the COVID-19 Department of the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases are occupied.

Nearly half of beds at departments responsible for COVID-19 treatment of general and specialized hospitals in the city are also used. However, no COVID-19 death is recorded.

In response, a special working team under the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health in charge of managing severe and critical COVID-19 patients will report the situation to the department.

To deal with the situation, the department will immediately summon the municipal steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and control and reopen the Field Hospital No. 13 to treat seriously-ill cases.

After the drill, the department will coordinate with the municipal Center for Disease Control and the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases to get lessons from it, provide them to the entire municipal healthcare system, and report the results to the municipal steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and control.

The national and Ho Chi Minh City steering committees for COVID-19 prevention and control have asked the municipal healthcare sector to always get ready for urgent situations if the pandemic resurges during the Tet holiday, which commences in the middle of next week, and take the initiative in responding to new variants.

Earlier, the head of the municipal anti-COVID-19 steering committee asked that the Department of Health reopen the Field Hospital No. 13 with 100 ICU beds within 24 hours when the pandemic situation worsens.

The capacity of the field hospital will be revised depending on the developments of the pandemic to effectively treat severe cases and minimize deaths.

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Thanh Ha - Xuan Mai / Tuoi Tre News

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