A doctor checks a baby at the Hoàn Mỹ-Đà Nẵng Hospital after successful heart disease. Photo courtesy Hoàn Mỹ Đà Nẵng

ĐÀ NẴNG —  Since the Hoàn Mỹ Hospital in Đà Nẵng resumed a free programme for children in central Việt Nam in late September, 23 children suffering from congenital heart disease in the central provinces have received surgery. 

They had already recovered from their successful surgeries and are now safe at home, said Dr Nguyễn Thanh Hiền.

All children treated come from poor and underprivileged families in the provinces of Bình Định, Nghệ An, Quảng Bình and Quảng Ngãi. They waited for months for the free operation programme to restart during the COVID-19 lockdown and social distancing time, the doctor said.

The hospital’s team of surgeons have done everything they can to resume heart-treatment for the children, including for a four-year-old child from Bình Định Province who needed a second surgery at the hospital in October, Hiền said.

According to doctors from the Hoàn Mỹ Đà Nẵng Hospital, more than 20,000 children in central Việt Nam were provided with free congenital heart disease examinations, thanks to 12 charity health care programmes in 2020.

At least 200 children were identified to have congenital heart disease and benefited from free surgery at the hospital under the program in 2020.

The hospital’s free surgeries programme has performed operations on 5,000 children in the central region over the last 14 years, while 4,000 others have received free heart screening examinations under the hospital’s under-18 heart care programme.

Teenagers aged between 15 and 17 in Đà Nẵng will be inoculated against COVID-19 in November. Photo courtesy of Đào Tuấn

Also on Tuesday, Đà Nẵng began a COVID-19 vaccination programme for 102,000 children aged between 12 and 17, including foreign children living in the city. 

The city’s health department said the Pfizer vaccine will be used for 45,000 teenagers between 15-17 years old in November, while those in the 12-15 age group will be inoculated between November and December.

It said all schools will be opened for students from November 15 after delaying the schedule from November 1.

According to a report from the city’s Centre for Disease Control (CDC), more than one million people in Đà Nẵng had been vaccinated by the end of October, of which 858,000 (78 per cent of the total population) were given the first shot and 236,000 (21 per cent) had gotten two shots of vaccine.

The city has removed its field hospitals and all COVID-19 patients are being treated at the Đà Nẵng General hospital. At the moment, 34 COVID-19 patients are at the hospital. — VNS