Children’s Hospital No.2 in HCM City is crowded with parents and caregivers waiting to have their children examined amid a spike in COVID-19 infections. VNS Photo Thu Hằng

HCM CITY — The HCM City Department of Health has instructed paediatric hospitals to set up 300 more beds, 50 in intensive care units, to treat child COVID-19 patients amid a spike in infections at schools.

The Municipal Children’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital Nos 1 and 2 have been told to step up training and assistance to help district-level hospitals.

District and general hospitals have been instructed to admit child COVID patients with moderate to mild symptoms if they fail to meet requirements for home isolation and treatment.

They have been asked to set aside 30-50 per cent of beds meant for COVID patients for children.

Children with severe symptoms will be admitted to the paediatric hospitals, the department said.

Schools in the city have seen nearly 44,120 teachers and students infected during the week from March 8 to 14, an increase of 6,670 from the previous week, according to the department.

As of March 17 there were nearly 30 child patients on ventilators, including 19 transferred from other localities, and five needing ECMO intervention.

The department said it would advise the city People’s Committee to close schools if daily hospital admissions of children with severe symptoms exceed 100. —VNS