Patients visiting the Children’s Hospital No.2 on March 10. Around 400-500 children with symptoms have been visiting the hospital every day for the last week, with 80 per cent testing positive for the COVID.  — VNS Photo Thu Hằng

HCM CITY — Children’s hospitals in HCM City are overcrowded with COVID-19 outpatients, but doctors say that most have mild symptoms and are given medicines and instructions for home care.

In the past week, around 400-500 children with symptoms visited the Children’s Hospital No.2 a day, and 80 per cent of them tested positive for novel coronavirus, said Dr Nguyễn Thanh Hải, head of Medical Examination Department.

Most children had mild symptoms and received doctors’ instructions for medication and care at home. Hospitalizations were rare, Hải said.

He said that the hospital had been seeing an increase in COVID-19 patient visits since the beginning of the month.

Meanwhile, Children’s Hospital No.1 has also been overcrowded over the past few days with children having COVID-19 symptoms.

Dr Dư Tấn Quy, head of the Infectious Diseases Department at the hospital, said they were giving medical examinations to more than 400 children with COVID-19 each day.

Quy said that the number of infected children had increased sharply over the past few days.

Last month, just 20-30 children with COVID-19 visited the hospital a week, he said.

The hospital has arranged four rooms to provide medical examination and treatment for children testing positive, but all of them are overloaded, he added.

He said that most infected patients had mild symptoms and were advised on care and treatment at home.

Six children with comorbidities are being treated at the hospital, Quy said.

The Municipal Children’s Hospital receives an average of 500-600 children having symptoms such as high fever, cough, and runny nose a day, with half of them testing positive for coronavirus. — VNS