Vietnamese- American doctors on Monday (August 30) discuss how to diagnose and treat COVID-19 patients at a forum held by the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs, the HCM City Overseas Vietnamese Committee and the provinces of Tiền Giang and Đồng Nai. — Photo courtesy of the HCM City Overseas Vietnamese Committee

HCM CITY — Charity organisation Good Samaritan Medical Dental Ministry in the US and Việt Nam wants to collaborate with Đồng Nai and Tiền Giang provinces to provide remote consultation to COVID-19 patients treated at home, Dr Đoàn Đào Viên, its medical director told an online forum on Monday.

Đồng Nai and Tiền Giang are among southern provinces with an increasing incidence and high numbers of COVID-19 patients.

Viên said the charity would connect with home-treated COVID-19 patients via a telemedicine system, and they would get detailed consultation and be re-examined after two to four days.

“The organisation could provide consultation to 200-300 COVID-19 patients every four hours." 

There is a need for a voluntary organisation in Đồng Nai and Tiền Giang to add patients to its system and deliver to them free medicines prescribed by Ministry of Health, he said. 

It would also help deliver SpO2 monitoring devices and oxygen concentrators to patients who need them, he said.

If patients at home have shortness of breath and if their SpO2, or the percentage of oxygen in blood reading on a pulse oximeter, is less than 94 per cent, they should be personally examined by health officials or taken to hospitals for treatment, he said.

Senior COVID-19 patients could become breathless on the fourth to the eighth day after starting to have symptoms, he said. A mild shortness of breath is common, but if it is severe, they need to be treated with medicines and closely monitored, he said.

Patients at home and their relatives should be told clearly about severe symptoms and when they need to contact health officials or the 115 emergency aid centre, he added. 

Trần Thanh Thảo, head of the Tiền Giang Province Department of Health, said patients at home would be provided with consultation and treatment.

The remote consultation or patients at home should be started as soon as possible, he said.  

The province also wants local and foreign doctors to help with treatment and provide medical equipment and devices, he added.     

Lê Quang Trung, deputy head of the Đồng Nai Department of Health, said the province has nearly 23,000 patients, including around 500 severe cases, and more than 200 people have died.     

The forum to share experiences in treating COVID-19 patients in the US would help doctors in the province improve their treatment, he said.

Other Vietnamese-American doctors also spoke about how to diagnose and treat inpatients and those with a Cytokine storm, a common complication contributing to mortality.

The Vietnamese consul general in San Francisco, the US, Nguyễn Trác Toàn, said the overseas Vietnamese community in US has donated ventilators, test kits, medical masks, and others to Việt Nam to help control COVID.

The forum was held by the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs, HCM City Overseas Vietnamese Committee and Foreign Affairs Departments in the provinces of Tiền Giang and Đồng Nai. — VNS