A military doctor checks up on a patient in Bình Tân District. HCM City wants the military to keep its mobile medical stations in the city to help deal with a rising number of COVID cases. – Photo plo.vn

HCM CITY – The HCM City Department of Health has asked the Ministry of National Defence to maintain its 85 mobile medical stations until the end of the year as COVID-19 cases continue to rise.

In August, the military allocated personnel, including thousands of doctors and military medical students, to help the city deal with the fourth COVID wave.

The city’s health department and district-level steering committees for pandemic prevention and control are working on plans to ensure sufficient manpower for local mobile medical stations when the military medical staff leave HCM City.

However, several districts are still seeing high numbers of COVID patients treating themselves at home, such as Thủ Đức City with over 20,500 patients, and Hóc Môn District with over 8,100 as of November 29.

The city is expected to ask the defence ministry to maintain the operation of 85 mobile medical stations in the city with 153 staff until the end of December.

The military has been gradually withdrawing its personnel from the city as the pandemic has become more stable. It had originally planned to complete the withdrawal by the end of November.

The Ministry of Health has told hospitals from other regions to send staff and equipment to aid HCM City and 10 Southern provinces in their fight against COVID-19.

The number of new daily COVID cases and deaths in HCM City, the country’s COVID-19 epicentre, has been on the rise since the city’s reopening on October 1.

More than 6,000 patients are staying at concentrated quarantine zones and over 66,000 patients are being treated at home. – VNS