A COVID patient quarantining at home in ward 5 in HCM City's Tân Bình District had shortness of breath on August 7, and a member of the ward's Hồ Chí Minh Communist Youth Union delivers an oxygen concentrator to her. Photo courtesy of the union

Gia Lộc

HCM CITY — With an increasing number of asymptomatic COVID-19 patients isolating themselves at home in HCM City, healthcare agencies are providing free medical consultancy through hotlines and Zalo groups, and oxygen cylinders and concentrators in case of emergencies.

HCM City was the first locality in Việt Nam to allow asymptomatic patients with a low viral load, no underlying disease or obesity, and stable underlying medical conditions to quarantine at home.  

This helps reduce the overload at medical facilities, according to the city Department of Health.   

Local health officials monitor them every day.

When they start to have symptoms such as temperature of above 38 degrees Celsius, sore throat, diarrhoea, loss of taste, or shortness of breath, they can call 1022, extensions 3 and 4, to get advice from doctors at the HCM City Medical Association, the city Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention, hospitals, or the Thầy thuốc đồng hành network of physicians.

“I am experiencing shortness of breath. Has my condition worsened?” was a question a patient asked at 1022, Assoc. Prof. Dr Nguyễn Thị Bay of the HCM City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, one of the doctors on 1022, said.  

“After hearing a patient say that, I told her to lie down and place a hand on her abdomen to count the number of times it rises and falls in one minute.

“More than 20 breaths per minute would be worrisome.

“The patient was reassured with the clear explanations about her health status and instructions on what she should do next.”

Through calls from asymptomatic patients at home and their relatives, she has realised that many of them are anxious and fearful, and timely consultation by a doctor is imperative.

The doctors providing consultancy on the hotline have also been asked many questions about vaccination such as side effects and ambulances to transport them to designated hospitals after their condition worsened.

In the case of the latter, doctors also guide patients’ relatives about emergency aid for patients while waiting for the ambulance besides sending patients’ information to the Department of Health and other relevant agencies for assistance with transporting to and admission at designated hospitals.  

The hotline 1022 is available 24 hours a day.

After hearing two COVID-19 patients who were quarantining at home in HCM City's Bình Tân District needed oxygen following a bout of asthma, Lại Đình Hoàng, chairman of the Việt Nam Youth Federation in the district’s Bình Trị Đông A ward, carries oxygen cylinders to them as part of the federation's oxygen ATM charity programme. Photo Courtesy of the federation

The Department of Health has collaborated with the Thầy thuốc đồng hành network of physicians to set up one more hotline at 093.95.96.999 for COVID patients and those who suspect they have contracted it and are isolated at home.

The consultancy is provided by health centres in all 22 districts and Thủ Đức City in co-operation with the Thầy thuốc đồng hành network of physicians.

It also helps classify high-risk groups who need to be hospitalised for treatment by sending their information to community-based COVID teams, task forces in districts, wards and communes and the 115 Emergency Aid Centre.

If a person takes more than 30 breaths per minute and their peripheral oxygen saturation is less than 95 per cent, they should call 115 or commune, ward or districts task force for emergency aid and transportation to hospitals.

Dr Trương Hữu Khanh, former head of the infectious and nervous diseases department at the city’s Paediatrics Hospital No 1, has a Facebook fanpage and Zalo group for patients and their relatives, and his consultancy has guided helped many patients’ families.     

Watch our video on the oxygen delivery service in HCM City

In Tân Bình District’s Ward 5, the local health centre and Hồ Chí Minh Communist Youth Union have also set up a similar Zalo group.

Trương Nguyễn Phong, secretary of the ward youth union, said free oxygen cylinders and concentrators would be provided to COVID patients at home whose condition becomes worse and need life support while waiting for transportation to hospital.

The union has 10 cylinders and three concentrators, all small and easily taken to homes of patients living in alleys, he said.

The youth union’s 17 members are available 24 hours a day to take them to patients’ houses, he said.   

Nguyễn Lê Trung Hiếu, chairman of the Bình Tân District unit of the Việt Nam Youth Federation, said members of the federation and district youth union are providing free oxygen cylinders to patients at home under a programme called Oxygen ATM carried out in co-operation with the Vietnam Young Entrepreneurs Association and PHG Smart home.

To get oxygen cylinders for patients quarantined at home, people need to contact 08.1934.1900 or phone numbers or the Facebook fanpage of the federation at districts and wards.

Lại Đình Hoàng, chairman of the Việt Nam Youth Federation in the district’s Bình Trị Đông A ward, said he got information about a senior couple with COVID needing oxygen because one of them got an asthma attack.

They did not have a flow regulator available, and so he rode to many medical stores around the ward to buy one, he said.

“We young people want to contribute as volunteers to assist people living in locked-down areas, with contact tracing, taking samples, vaccinating, and other tasks.” VNS