HCMC – The Ministry of Health today, January 18, issued a dispatch asking medical facilities across provinces and cities in Vietnam not to refuse admitting pregnant women infected with Covid-19.
The move came after a number of medical facilities, including private ones, recently shifted the responsibility onto others and denied admission of Covid-positive pregnant women.
The ministry said in the dispatch that during the complicated developments of the pandemic in 2021, lots of pregnant women had been infected with Covid and many of them had even died.
The ministry had issued many guidelines on providing intensive care to pregnant women during the pandemic, as well as prioritizing administering Covid vaccines to those pregnant or breastfeeding.
Given the refusal of admission to virus-hit pregnant women, the ministry asked the local health authorities, hospitals under the ministry, and the relevant agencies to ensure the safe, hassle-free, and undisrupted provision of medical checkups, prenatal and postnatal care services to those in need.
Medical centers offering obstetric and newborn care services were asked to comply with prevailing guidelines on handling the Covid infection in pregnant women and newborn babies, on par with the capacity of the facilities and localities.
They were also asked to set up separate zones for virus-hit pregnant women. Further, they can coordinate with the relevant units to transfer virus-hit pregnant women to Covid treatment facilities in their areas or contact upper-level hospitals under the Health Ministry for support in terms of expertise or technical issues.
