As of Tuesday morning (Mar 24), Vietnam has recorded 123 positive cases, of which 17 have recovered and been discharged. The remaining 106 are being treated and isolated at 15 health facilities across the country, including those in district-level health centres.
The MoH said the majority of patients' health status is stable, some having no fever, cough or shortness of breath, with normal lung X-ray tests. Some patients have signs of pneumonia (shown on X-ray films) which are being treated with the pneumonia regimen.
* On the same day, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Red Cross Society received over VND7.2 billion from Coca-Cola Vietnam to support the COVID-19 responsive efforts.
The society and Coca-Cola Vietnam will present medical supplies to doctors and anti-epidemic forces in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, as well as to concentrated isolation camps and local people in the provinces of Hai Duong, Quang Ninh, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan.
Special flight to bring European citizens back home from Vietnam
Bamboo Airways said it will coordinate with the Czech Embassy in Vietnam to operate a special flight from Hanoi to Prague on March 25 to transport European citizens who want to return home.
The flight will also transport medical relief aid of the Vietnamese Government to the Czech Republic to support the country in addressing its shortage of medical equipment amidst the complicated developments of COVID-19..
The flight is scheduled to take off at 8:20 am from Noi Bai International Airport to Prague, carrying 280 passengers – citizens of the Czech Republic and other European nations. Passengers can directly contact the Czech Embassy in Vietnam for further information.
According to a representative from Bamboo Airways, this is the first non-stop flight of a domestic Vietnamese airline to the Czech Republic. The airlines will strictly and comprehensively abide by the relevant regulations and recommendations of domestic and foreign authorities to minimise the risk of infection.
Mobile disinfection chamber set up at Noi Bai Airport
The mobile disinfection chamber set up at Noi Bai Airport. (Photo: NDO)
On March 24, after just three days of installation, a group of young engineers from the Noi Bai Aviation Technical Service Centre at Noi Bai International Airport (NIA) manufactured and officially put into use a mobile disinfection chamber, which allows whole-body disinfection, serving COVID-19 prevention at the airport.
The chamber is located at the NIA Operator Building in the airport, uses fine salt ionic solution and is equipped with optical sensors that allow automatic whole-body disinfection in just 30 seconds.
After receiving direction from the NIA director at a meeting on March 20, Nguyen Truong Giang, Deputy Director of Noi Bai Technical Service Centre simulated the idea, and along with his 10 young teammates, finished the full-body disinfection chamber and put it into use after only three days.
After the first disinfection chamber, NIA will continue to research and replicate, placing more chambers at affiliated units and particularly at the airport to serve passengers, Deputy General Director of Airports Corporation of Vietnam cum NIA Director Nguyen Duc Hung said, adding that the NIA is willing to share the technology with units in need.