New COVID-19 cases tend to rise: official

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 the beginning of April, said Prof Phan Trong Lan, director of the Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health (MoH), at a conference on 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 past nearly six months,

A total of 2,070 new cases were reported across the nation in the first three months of this year, with 160 recorded per week on average.

No fatality has been documented over the past 108 days. The total number of deaths due to the COVID-19 was 43,186, or 0.4% of the total infections.

Regarding the treatment of COVID-19 patients, Nguyen Trong Khoa, Deputy Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment under the MoH, said the department is coordinating with experts to review treatment guidelines.

A COVID-19 patient requires oxygen support. (Photo: VNA)

Nguyen Thanh Ha, deputy director of the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases, said the number of the patients of the pandemic being hospitalised has been rising remarkably since the beginning of April. The hospital received 47 cases 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 of Health Dao Hong Lan requested an early meeting of the professional council to review and update treatment guidelines and dissemination.

Units were asked to review the contents relating to licensing, procurement, allocating and transferring equipment, drugs and vaccines in line with their assigned tasks so that they can take the initiative in pandemic prevention.

The dissemination of messages on COVID-19 prevention and control should be sped up to raise people’s awareness of the issue, particularly their compliance with the “2K” message – khau trang (facemask) and khu khuan (disinfection)./.