HCMC – Thu Duc City and districts in HCMC must establish teams to visit households to take samples for Covid-19 testing, instead of asking people to come to sample collection sites as before, said Phan Van Mai, permanent deputy secretary of the HCMC Party Committee.
At a meeting on July 9 to discuss the deployment of the prime minister’s Directive 16 and the Covid-19 testing work in the city, Mai said Directive 16 bans gatherings of more than two people, the local media reported.
HCMC issued the 15-day stay-at-home order in line with the prime ministerial Directive 16, with effect from midnight on July 9, as the Covid-19 pandemic is raging in the city.
In areas where sample collection teams have yet to be set up, residents who develop symptoms such as cough and fever should contact the local health authorities for immediate assistance and health workers will come to their houses within 30-60 minutes to take their samples.
The city will focus on testing residents in extremely-high-risk and high-risk areas and conduct random tests in lower-risk areas. The competent agencies must quickly conduct tests, return the results, trace contacts of Covid-19 patients and zone off pandemic-hit areas.
Mai stressed that during the 15-day social distancing period, the city must make the greatest efforts to bring the pandemic under control.
Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Director of the HCMC Department of Health Nguyen Hoai Nam said the city would take group samples and use the RT-PCR testing method in high-risk areas, while representatives of households would undergo quick tests. Households with fewer than five people would have one member tested, while those with more than five people will have two members tested.
As the number of critical Covid-19 patients has been escalating, the Department of Health on July 9 asked four hospitals to prepare 1,000 beds for the treatment of critical patients, including 300 beds at the Cho Ray Hospital, 300 at the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases, 250 at the People’s Hospital 115 and 150 at the Gia Dinh People’s Hospital.
The department also asked the Cho Ray Hospital and the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases to use existing beds at their clinical departments for the recuperation of Covid-19 patients.
Moreover, district-level hospitals, People’s Hospital 115 and Gia Dinh People’s Hospital were converted into Covid-19 treatment facilities.
Specifically, the Binh Chanh District Hospital has been converted into the second campus of the People’s Hospital 115, which can receive 250 critical Covid-19 patients and 250 patients with mild symptoms. The Go Vap District Hospital has temporarily become the second campus of the Gia Dinh People’s Hospital to treat 150 critical patients and 350 others with mild symptoms.
