Health Minister asks for establishing mobile medical stations at pandemic-stricken localities

VGP – Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long stressed the need to establish mobile medical stations to monitor and provide treatment to COVID-19 patients quarantined at home, firstly in Ho Chi Minh City - the biggest coronavirus hotspot in Viet Nam while chairing an online conference on August 19.

August 19, 2021 4:03 PM GMT+7

The number of daily new COVID-19 cases in Ho Chi Minh City from August 4-18, 2021.

Other localities would be willing to launch and activate the model in case of necessity, the Minister suggested.

Each mobile medical station will have 1-2 doctors and 5-7 health workers equiped with medical supplies.

In addition, mobile medical stations will conduct COVID-19 quick test and administer vaccine shots to local residents.

Ho Chi Minh City has allowed COVID-19 patients showing no or mild symptoms to be treated at home, with support from local authorities and doctors.

According to the city’s Department of Health, as of Thursday morning, the southern metropolis has recorded 162,372 COVID-19 patients, including 161,967 local infections and 405 imported cases.

The city is treating 33,202 coronavirus patients, of whom 1,937 are under 16 years old.

As many as 2,302 people are seriously ill due to COVID-19 in Ho Chi Minh City, while 16 others are in critical conditions.

Ho Chi Minh City currently has 17 active infection clusters, and has not detected any new clusters for five days.

Approximately 47,218 COVID-19 patients with no or mild symptoms are being quarantined and treated at home. Among them, 28,275 had received treatment at local hospitals for a certain period before being monitored at their houses.

Over 14,068 other patients are quarantined and treated at concentrated facilities managed by district-level authorities.

As of late August 18, as many as 5,064,448 vaccine doses were administered in Ho Chi Minh City.

By Thuy Dung