Students of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Huế University, help train passengers fill health declaration forms. VNA/VNS.Photo Tường Vi

HCM CITY— Young people in many provinces and cities are volunteering to take part in COVID-19 prevention and control efforts together with health authorities.

The HCM City Communist Youth Union on March 22 launched a voluntary programme to support the health sector.   

It attracted 200 young doctors and staff from clinics and hospitals run by universities and medical students. 

Phan Thị Thanh Phương, the union’s standing deputy secretary, said there would be communication about COVID-19 preventive measures and its progress to students, their parents, teachers, and workers in the city.     

It would also work with local authorities and relevant agencies to install medical equipment at hospitals and collaborate with the Sài Gòn Water Supply Corporation’s Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union and Tuổi Trẻ (Youth) newspaper to install wash basin in 25 schools in the city, especially in outlying districts, and spray chemicals to disinfect them, she said.

They would also provide assistance in the city’s quarantine areas and help people brought there fill health declaration forms required by the city Centre for Diseases Prevention and Control (CDC), she said. 

The volunteers had received training. 

Trần Duy Quân, a fifth year student at the HCM City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, said he and his classmates had obtained knowledge about the disease and preventive measures and could correct misunderstanding among the public.

Dr Nguyễn Thanh Hiệp, vice rector of the Phạm Ngọc Thạch University of Medicine in HCM City, said more than 500 senior students had worked with staff at the Centre for Diseases Prevention and Control in the fight against COVID-19.

They helped the centre’s staff input data about the incidence of COVID-19 and people related to patients, and set up a map genealogy to monitor the spread of the disease. They were also helping the centre’s team investigate the epidemic by tracking people who pose a high risk of transmission.

Students are providing assistance to authorities in quarantine areas.

All have been trained in how to protect themselves from COVID-19.

Last weekend hundreds of students from the Việt Nam National University- HCM City volunteered to clean the university’s dormitory, which is being used as quarantine accommodation for more than 3,000 people. 

In the Mekong Delta city of Cần Thơ, 305 students of the Cần Thơ University of Medicine and Pharmacy are working to communicate, disinfect and take samples for tests.

Its lecturers have also joined COVID-19 prevention and control efforts.

Three hundred forty students of Huế University’s University of Medicine and Pharmacy are working with the police to check the temperatures of train passengers and guide them in filling health declaration and other papers.

They include 160 students good at English who are helping foreign passengers.

According to the Hà Nội Centre for Diseases Prevention and Control, 75 students from the Hà Nội Medical University have joined its staff for prevention and control of COVID-19 like the students from Phạm Ngọc Thạch University of Medicine’s do at the HCM City CDC centre.

Other students are providing assistance to staff preventing against COVID-19 at Nội Bài International Airport in Hà Nội.

Six hundreds of students from the Hà Nội University of Public Health pursuing majors in public health, testing techniques and nutrition are pitching in to help health officials.  

The Ministry of Health has called on medical students to help in the fight against the epidemic. VNS