At Ha Nam General Hospital, three Vietnamese female patients, including a 35-year-old who is five months pregnant, were discharged this morning following their full recovery. The trio (Patients 168, 188 and 231) are employees of the Truong Sinh Company which provided catering services to Hanoi’s Bach Mai Hospital which was a hot spot of the pandemic.
They were accompanying a delegation from Bach Mai Hospital base 1 in Hanoi to the hospital’s base 2 in Ha Nam to work. After confirming positive for SARS-CoV-2, the patients were placed in isolation at Ha Nam General Hospital.
After 18 days of treatment, the patients were discharged from the hospital and will undergo quarantine and monitoring as per regulations from the Ministry of Health, Director of the Ha Nam General Hospital Do Trung Dong said.
“I am five months pregnant, so when I was hospitalised, I was also worried. But during my stay in the hospital, I was under the care of doctors every day and now I have recovered and my foetus is as normal. I would like to thank the medical team at Ha Nam General Hospital”, N.T.H. (Patient 168 from Thai Binh Province) told Nhan Dan Newspaper upon discharge.
The trio, who were the last three COVID-19 patients in Ha Nam, had their second negative test for SARS-CoV-2 on April 11 and the third three days later, thus making them eligible for the all-clear. This makes Ha Nam now free of COVID-19 cases.
* On Thursday afternoon, two more COVID-19 patients were released from Field Hospital No. 2 in Quang Ninh Province, both are Vietnamese nationals (Patients 52 and 149).
The 24-year-old female and 40-year-old male patients had three consecutive negative tests from April 13 to 15 and are now in normal health and discharged.
Patient 149 (L) receives a certificate of recovery before being discharged from Field Hospital No. 2 in Quang Ninh Province on April 16, 2020. (Photo: NDO/Pham Tuan)
The duo will continue to practice self-isolation and their health will be monitored for the next 14 days.
With five more discharges today, the recovery rate in Vietnam has reached nearly 66%, with a total of 176 patients having recovered from the disease out of the 268 confirmed cases in the country so far.
The remaining 92 COVID-19 patients are being treated at 14 medical facilities across the nation, with the majority of them are in stable health.
There is one critically ill patient – a 43-year-old British pilot (Patient 91) – who is in need of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support in combination with mechanical ventilation at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City. The patient is being monitored for his coagulation disorder and HIT syndrome but the British man has shown some positive signs this morning as he could recognise signs around him. Specialists will consult and prepare the withdrawal of ECMO from him soon.
Among the remaining positive cases, there are 46 who have tested negative for the deadly virus once, 29 tested who have tested negative twice and 10 having three negative tests.
* Also today, following a call from Nhan Dan Newspaper’s Office in Soc Trang Province, Boss Travel & Events Company presented 500 sets of medical protective equipment and 500 hand sanitisers to the provincial Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control to support the locality in the fight against the disease.
Together with epidemiological investigation and strict control and surveillance preventing the disease from spreading, the local health sector has coordinated with the concerned units to set up isolated facilities and organise medical screening to help nearly 1,000 Vietnamese and foreign citizens stay safe against the pandemic.
