A health worker gives vaccine information to a member of the public in Hà Nội. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Professor Phan Trọng Lân, the Director of the Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health (MoH), has warned the number of COVID-19 cases has been rapidly increasing since the start of April.

This announcement was made during a pandemic prevention and combat conference held on Monday in Hà Nội.

During the first week of April, Việt Nam recorded 278 cases; however, the second week saw 2,000 new cases.

On April 17 alone, the country documented 1,031 new cases - the highest number reported in nearly six months.

Over the first three months of this year, the nation reported 2,070 new cases, averaging 160 cases per week.

However, no fatalities have been documented over the past 108 days. The total number of deaths due to COVID-19 was 43,186, or 0.4 per cent of the total infections.

Regarding the treatment of COVID-19 patients, Nguyễn Trọng Khoa, Deputy Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment under the MoH, said the department was coordinating with experts to review treatment guidelines.

Nguyễn Thanh Hà, deputy director of the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases, said the number of patients of the pandemic being hospitalised had been rising remarkably since the beginning of April.

The hospital received 47 cases in the first week and 85 in the second week. On April 17 afternoon, it treated 146 cases, including 21 severe ones.

Minister of Health Đào Hồng Lan requested an early meeting of the professional council to review and update treatment guidelines and dissemination.

Units were asked to review the contents relating to licensing, procurement, allocating and transferring equipment, drugs and vaccines in line with their assigned tasks to take the initiative in pandemic prevention.

The dissemination of messages on COVID-19 prevention and control should be sped up to raise people’s awareness of the issue, particularly their compliance with the “2K” message – khẩu trang (facemask) and khử khuẩn (disinfection).

Also on Monday, at an online briefing conference of the Hà Nội People's Committee with administrations in districts on disease prevention and control, Deputy Director of the Hà Nội Department of Health Vũ Cao Cường said that the number of COVID-19 cases in the city was presently increasing rapidly.

The capital city recorded nearly 500 positive cases within just a week from April 7 to April 14, representing a seven-fold rise compared to the previous week, bringing the total number of infected cases to 756 since the beginning of the year.

Through gene sequencing of the SARS-CoV-2 virus with some COVID-19 cases, the health agency discovered the presence of a new COVID-19 variant, XBB.1.5, which was spreading rapidly throughout many countries, including the UK, Germany, USA, France, Singapore, and the Philippines.

Therefore, the Hà Nội CDC had requested that relevant units continue to closely monitor the disease to promptly prevent a possible outbreak amid the pandemic’s unpredictable developments worldwide, especially as COVID-19 is constantly mutating with new variants and sub-variants emerging.

Deputy Director of the city's Department of Health Cường said during the week, the number of cases kept increasing compared to the previous week. The COVID-19 pandemic might still be complicated and unpredictable because the virus has constantly changed to create new variants capable of spreading quickly, avoiding the immune system.

Therefore, people’s negligent attitude towards the disease would fail in prevention and control tasks.

Vice Chairman of Hà Nội People's Committee Vũ Thu Hà noted people would travel extensively during the long upcoming holidays of April 30 and May 1, so localities and health authorities must take heed of disease prevention and control, especially the COVID-19 epidemic.

At the same time, localities should pay special attention to the elderly, people with underlying diseases, immunocompromised people, children and pregnant women.

Given the situation, many provinces have ordered close watch and supervision of COVID-19 cases and preparations of human resources and medical facilities for serious cases, if any. — VNS