A health worker explains about COVID-19 vaccine for a resident. (Photo: VNA) Đa Hanoi (VNA) – The number of COVID-19 cases has increased rapidly since thebeginning of April, said Prof Phan Trong Lan, director of theDepartment of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health (MoH), at a conferenceon the pandemic prevention and combat held on April 17 in Hanoi.
In the first week of April, Vietnam recorded 278 cases, but the second week saw 2,000 new ones. On April 17 alone, the country documented as many as 1,031 new cases, a record in the pastnearly six months,
A totalof 2,070 new cases were reported across the nation in the first threemonths of this year, with 160 recorded per week on average.
No fatality has been documented over the past 108 days. Thetotal number of deaths due to the COVID-19 was 43,186, or 0.4% of the totalinfections.
Regardingthe treatment of COVID-19 patients, Nguyen Trong Khoa, Deputy Director of theDepartment of Medical Examination and Treatment under the MoH, said the departmentis coordinating with experts to review treatment guidelines.
A COVID-19 patient requires oxygen support. (Photo: VNA) Nguyen Thanh Ha, deputy director of the NationalHospital for Tropical Diseases, said the number of the patients of the pandemic being hospitalisedhas been rising remarkably since the beginning of April. The hospital received 47cases in the first week and 85 in the second week. On April 17 afternoon, it was treating 146 cases, including 21 severe ones.
At the conference, Minister ofHealth Dao Hong Lan requested an early meeting of the professionalcouncil to review and update treatment guidelines and dissemination.
Units were asked to review thecontents relating to licensing, procurement, allocating and transferring equipment, drugsand vaccines in line with their assigned tasks so that they can take the initiativein pandemic prevention.
The dissemination of messages on COVID-19prevention and control should be sped up to raise people’s awareness of theissue, particularly their compliance with the “2K” message – khau trang(facemask) and khu khuan (disinfection)./.
