HCMC – The HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases today completed testing 887 employees, using the real-time RT-PCR method, and 53 of them tested positive for Covid-19, including 22 cases reported yesterday.
All the 53 cases have got two shots of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine and 52 of them reported no symptoms of Covid-19. The 53 cases are employees of the IT, administrative, general planning, personnel organization and pharmacy departments.
They are being treated at the hospital’s departments of infection control A and D.
Three days ago, the hospital tested its employees who have directly contacted Covid-19 patients treated at the hospital and all of them tested negative.
According to an investigation jointly conducted by the hospital and the HCMC Center for Disease Control, the sources of infection of the cases may come from outside the hospital.
The hospital has also tested 88 critical patients treated for tetanus, encephalitis, HIV/AIDS and chronic liver diseases at the hospital and the result of all of them was negative.
The HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases is treating 94 coronavirus patients, 35 of whom are in critical condition.
This morning, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son came to the hospital to direct the fight against the pandemic. Accordingly, the hospital will stop receiving new Covid-19 patients for a week.
The municipal Department of Health will assign other Covid-19 treatment hospitals in the city to admit Covid-19 patients. The treatment of critical patients will be supported by Cho Ray Hospital.
On the same day, two employees of Gia Dinh Hospital’s Microbiology Department were also found to be infected with Covid-19, with one being the wife of an IT staff of the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases.
The couple are residing in the Ehome 3 apartment building in Binh Tan District.
After her husband was infected with the coronavirus, she informed Gia Dinh Hospital and underwent a Covid-19 test on June 12.
The hospital on the same day tested all employees of the Microbiology Department and detected another Covid-19 case.
A hospital leader said the hospital would operate as normal.
Truong Dinh Nhan, director of the medical center of Binh Tan District, said the entire Ehome 3 apartment building with 14 blocks had been put under lockdown, starting from 10 a.m. on June 13.
All 7,600 residents in the apartment building have had their samples taken for Covid-19 testing.
The Ministry of Health tonight confirmed 103 Covid-19 cases, with HCMC accounting for the most, at 44, while Bac Giang had 33 cases, and Bac Ninh 16. Meanwhile, nine were reported in Ha Tinh and one in Binh Duong.
Thus, Vietnam’s Covid-19 tally today was 297 cases.
In addition, 171 patients were announced to have recovered from Covid-19, raising the total number of recovered patients in the country to 3,998.
As for the new cases in HCMC, 36 were linked to the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases and eight had close contact with other Covid-19 patients.
Thus, 95 cases were reported in HCMC today, the highest for a day since early this year. Especially, all districts in the city have reported Covid-19 patients.
