HCM CITY — An intensive care unit (ICU) in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta city of Cần Thơ began admitting severe COVID-19 cases on Monday amid a spike in new infections in the region.

The 200 ICU beds at Cần Thơ Central General Hospital, part of 12 ICUs set up by the Ministry of Health nationwide in response to the pandemic, offer treatment for severe COVID-19 cases in the Delta.

According to Deputy director of Cần Thơ Central General Hospital Nguyễn Minh Nghiêm, the ICU has modern medical devices such as medical oxygen systems and ventilators and employs specialists trained in intensive care.

It is expected to help reduce the rate of severely ill COVID-19 patients.

One of the buildings at Cần Thơ Central General Hospital, which has a total of 1,000 beds and 1,400 doctors, is being used to treat COVID-19 patients. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has been successfully used by hospital doctors to treat two critically ill COVID-19 patients.

As of Sunday (August 15), more than 2,600 Covid-19 cases were reported in Cần Thơ City.

On Sunday, the country recorded 9,574 local infections, with 4,516 cases in HCM City, followed by Bình Dương (2,358), Đồng Nai (546), Long An (514), Đồng Tháp (271), Tiền Giang (209), and Cần Thơ (170). 

As of Sunday (August 15), a total of 271,037 cases have been recorded in the country since April 27, including 99,730 patients recovered from the disease. —VNS