This afternoon, the Hanoi-based National Hospital for Tropical Diseases released 19 patients, including 18 Vietnamese citizens repatriated from Equatorial Guinea and one from Bangladesh.
All the patients have had multiple negative test results for the SARS-CoV-2 virus and are in stable health without cough or fever after undergoing their treatment at the hospital.
Among the three critically ill patients, known as Patients 867, 812 and 793, who are in intensive care at the facility, two are progressing well.
Earlier the same day, at the Quang Nam Central General Hospital (Nui Thanh District) and the Quang Nam Regional General Hospital (Dien Ban Town) in the central province of Quang Nam, local authorities granted the discharge of 11 patients with COVID-19.
Accordingly, at the Quang Nam Central General Hospital, five patients were announced as recovered, including Patients no. 433, 773 and 622. The others were treated at the Quang Nam Regional General Hospital. All the 11 patients are local residents in the province.
The latest recoveries from the coronavirus will continue to undergo self-quarantine and further health monitoring at home for another two weeks under the set regulations.
As of 2 pm this afternoon, Vietnam has recorded a total of 983 COVID-19 infections, including 645 local transmitted cases, of which the number of new cases related to the Da Nang outbreak from July 25 is 505 cases.
The death toll in relation to COVID-19 in the country has reached 25 after the latest fatality was confirmed this morning.
The 51-year-old woman from Thuan Phuoc ward of Hai Chau district, the central city of Da Nang, died of pneumonia caused by COVID-19, acute myocardial infarction complications by septic shock, multi-organ failure by metastatic ovarian cancer, and kidney stones, according to the Ministry of Health.
The patient, having had one kidney removed in the past after suffering a urinary tract infection, was undergoing treatment at the Da Nang Lung Hospital when she succumbed to the coronavirus disease.
To support local students amid the complex development of the pandemic, the People's Committee of Da Nang City decided to deduct 100% of tuition fees for the first four months of first semester in the upcoming new schoolyear, being applied to preschool children and junior and high school students, but not applicable to foreign-invested schools.
In Hanoi, the vice chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee on August 18 issued an urgent telegram urging local authorities in the capital city to drastically carry out necessary measures to prevent the COVID-19 spread.
In these, the Hanoi authorities requested the Hanoi Department of Health to coordinate with the local concerned units to urgently carry out COVID-19 test for all returnees from Da Nang and finish this work by August 20 before publicising the results to the public.
On the same day, the Hanoi Department of Health suggested that 18,333 people in 14 districts who have returned from Da Nang from July 17-29 immediately go to the sampling venues to be tested for COVID-19 by RT-PCR test kits. They were urged to immediately give samples for testing.
From July 29, the Centre for Disease Control of Hanoi has carried out RT-PCR tests for 51,768 people with a history of returning from Da Nang. Among them, 11 have been confirmed as positive for SARS-CoV-2, eight are returnees from Da Nang, one patient has a permanent residential address in Hai Duong Province and two are secondary infections due to direct contact with COVID-19 patients.
Regarding the sequencing of the viral gene causing COVID-19 outbreak in Hai Duong, Prof, Dr. Dang Duc Anh, Director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE), announced that the sequencing of the coronavirus gene found in COVID-19 patients in Hai Duong showed that they are the same as the strain in Da Nang, indicating that the outbreak in Hai Duong is most likely in relation with Da Nang.
Earlier, a Hai Duong man, known as Patient no. 867, was confirmed as positive for the coronavirus without any travel history to Da Nang in recent months and also without a clear infection source. Several infections were then confirmed in relation to the outbreak in the restaurant where he works in Hai Duong City, the capital of Hai Duong Province.
Dr. Pham Quang Thai, Deputy Head of the NIHE’s Department of Infectious Disease Control, said the outbreak in Hai Duong was quite complicated, adding that new locally-transmitted infections would appear and the patients would deteriorate seriously, so Hai Duong needs to focus strongly on zoning, isolating and rapid testing.
Thai suggested the local health sector have a plan for large-scale testing to screen for cases related to the local outbreak. People with signs of cough and fever in the community without clear epidemiological factors should also be tested, he said, adding that the NIHE would establish a direct communication channel with Hai Duong to help in its control of the disease, while conducting investigations in the community about the epidemic to develop a more detailed support plan.
