HCMC – The Ministry of Health has announced to pilot the home-based care for Covid-19 patients in HCMC from August 16, which will provide medications and nutrition, physical and mental care.
Covid-19 patients will be tested at home and provided with medicines and advice on health improvement. They will be also provided with food to prevent their family members from going out, the local media reported.
During the pilot, Molnupiravir, a Covid-19 antiviral, is expected to be used. Clinical trials in the United States and India have showed positive results of its safety and efficacy.
Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said the treatment of Covid-19 patients at home must be in association with nutrition, physical and mental care to reduce the risk of symptoms getting worse and transmission.
The Ministry of Health will also supply documents instructing Covid-19 cases to take care of themselves, monitor their health conditions and contact clinics in case they get worse.
To ensure the safety and efficiency of the solution, the Research Ethics Committee will assess the solution at medical centers between August 16 and 22 before piloting the solution in the community.
The Ministry of Health assigned the Thong Nhat and Central Lung hospitals to assess the efficacy of the solution at medical units and pilot the solution on mild and moderate Covid-19 cases.
Meanwhile, the HCMC University Medical Center and the Hanoi University of Public Health will directly conduct the pilot in the community.
The Ministry of Health has asked producers and importers of pharmaceutical products to negotiate with their partners to buy Molnupiravir and receive the Molnupiravir production technology. It also asked biopharmaceutical company MERCK and other pharmaceutical firms to submit dossiers to the ministry so that the ministry could consider and approve the emergency use of medicines for Covid-19 treatment.
The ministry has also encouraged enterprises to import Covid-19 antivirals, such as Remdesivir, to serve the Covid-19 treatment.
