A COVID-19 patient is treated at home in HCM City’s Tân Bình District. Source: Facebook page of Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union in Ward 5 of the district

HCM CITY— COVID-19 patients in HCM City who do not meet the criteria for home quarantine will be allowed to stay at a designated quarantine facility in their local area or at their company, or pay a fee to spend their quarantine period at an approved hotel, according to a new instruction from the city Department of Health.

The instruction deals with COVID-19 detection, treatment and preventive measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 clusters in the community.

The required procedures include three steps: detection of COVID-19 patients, handling of COVID-19 clusters in households, and investigation and handling of COVID-19 clusters in the community.

Under the city instruction, in household-based COVID-19 clusters, members of the household must take rapid antigen tests. The households will be quarantined for 14 days, and a warning sign will be posted in front of their house. After 14 days, household members will be tested again and the results will decide whether they will be quarantined further.

COVID-19 patients in households must carry out preventive measures against transmission among family members, especially high-risk people aged 65 and older, people aged 50 and more with underlying health conditions, obese people, and pregnant women.  

During treatment and quarantine at home, COVID-19 patients who have mild symptoms will receive medicine from local medical workers. If COVID-19 patients experience rapid or difficult breathing, or an oxygen saturation level under 96 per cent, they should call the local task force for emergency aid and be transported to the hospital.   

If a commune and ward has more than 10 households that have COVID-19 patients, it should have one mobile medical station monitoring and treating the patients.

If it has more than 50-100 households with COVID-19 patients, it should set up additional mobile medical stations.

The department has told all city districts and Thủ Đức City to urgently review and investigate close contacts between the COVID-19 households and other people in their residential areas as well as any contact with people from outside the area such as delivery people.

City districts and Thủ Đức City authorities should also review vaccination coverage in their areas.

Cluster risk levels

If there are infection clusters, the area should be temporarily locked down within 24 hours. Authorities should inform residents about the cluster and how to comply with regulations about surveillance.  

They should also arrange rapid antigen tests within two to four hours for all people in the COVID-19 cluster to assess the risk level.

Based on the screening results of the cluster and the characteristics of the residential area, the authorities will then classify the risk level of the cluster.

In low-risk COVID-19 clusters, everyone except for households with COVID-19 patients will be tested every five days until no new COVID-19 case is detected.

People with negative test results are allowed to move and live normally but are not allowed to attend gatherings of more than 20 people. They must monitor their health and report symptoms to the local health station for immediate testing.

In high-risk COVID-19 clusters, everyone except for households with COVID-19 patients will be tested every three days until no new COVID-19 case is detected.  

People in these areas with negative test results are allowed to move and live normally but are not allowed to attend gatherings of more than 10 people. They must monitor their health and report symptoms to local health stations for immediate testing.

In extremely high–risk COVID-19 clusters, everyone will be tested every two days and at least three times. If no new COVID-19 cases are detected, only households with COVID-19 patients will be quarantined. — VNS