Hà Nội's Steering Committee for COVID-19 Control hold a meeting on Thursday, releasing updates on the COVID-19 hot spot at Bạch Mai Hospital . — VNA/VNS Photo Doãn Tấn

HÀ NỘI – About 9,000 people connected to Bạch Mai Hospital, a COVID-19 hotspot in Hà Nội, will be tested for the SARS-CoV-2 virus by Monday, adding to the more than 17,200 people that have been tested in the last 10 days.

Among 251 COVID-19 cases confirmed by Thursday morning in Việt Nam, 102 cases are in Hà Nội including 40 detected in quarantine areas and 62 in the community.

Among Hà Nội’s total cases, 38 relate to Bạch Mai Hospital including 22 workers of Trường Sinh Company – a service provider in the hospital, and two nurses. The remaining 22 infection cases are patients, their caregivers and people who had close contact with them.

Director of Hà Nội’s Health Department Nguyễn Khắc Hiền said since March 28, local authorities had found 25,951 people who visited Bạch Mai Hospital between March 10 to March 28.

Nearly 17,200 people were tested, of which 8,410 people were confirmed negative for the new coronavirus, five people were confirmed positive and the rest are awaiting test results.

Speaking at the online meeting of the city’s Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control on Wednesday afternoon, municipal People’s Committee chairman Nguyễn Đức Chung said that 10 days after being lockdown, the Bạch Mai Hospital COVID-19 outbreak was under control.

He said he felt quite relieved to know more than 4,000 doctors and staff at the hospital had tested negative for SARS-Cov-2 at least twice.

Vice director of Bạch Mai Hospital Ngô Quý Châu told the meeting that employees of Trường Sinh Company stayed at the hospital from March 10 to March 28. They had meals at the hospital’s canteen and slept on the first and second floors of the hospital’s nursing centre.

Chung said that as the nearly 90 employees of Trường Sinh Company mostly stayed in the hospital at this time, the risk of infection to the community was lower.

He said all the employees were isolated and had been tested for the coronavirus since March 28.

As for the employees that went with 34 hospital workers to the hospital’s branch in Hà Nam Province by coach, all were also quarantined by March 28.

Nguyễn Nhật Cảm, director of the city’s Centre for Diseases Control (CDC) said that according to the list of visitors provided by Bạch Mai Hospital, about 4,000 people had not been found.

Cảm said that authorities at districts, towns and communes were still searching for and testing these people.

He added that the CDC was making efforts to offer both quick and slow tests.

The centre has also worked with Bạch Mai Hospital on disinfectant measures, first in places where Trường Sinh Company’s employees work and stay, then at the hospital’s examination and treatment areas.

The hospital’s vice director Châu said that despite the lockdown, the hospital still received patients with serious illnesses from other hospitals.

The new patients and their caregivers tested negative for the virus three times, Châu said, suggesting that when the patients recovered from their illnesses, they should be re-transferred to local hospitals and the CDC of their residential areas would carry out follow-up health monitoring. — VNS