More beds and modern medical equipment are being installed at the temporary hospital in Hà Nam. —Photo nhandan.com.vn

HÀ NAM — The centrally-run hospital of Bạch Mai has constructed a 500-bed temporary hospital for COVID-19 treatment in northern Hà Nam Province.

The facility, set up in Phủ Lý City in just 24 hours, will treat patients with severe conditions and can test 10,000 samples a day with help from the hospital in the capital. It was ready to receive patients on Saturday morning.

It has 500 beds including 30 intensive care beds, equipped with EMCO and breathing machines to assist severe cases.

Professor Đoàn Quang Tuấn, director of the hospital said it was installing medical equipment, testing machines and moving more beds from Bạch Mai Hospital in Hà Nội to Hà Nam.

The temporary hospital will receive elderly patients, those with underlying health conditions and children under the age of three who are F1 cases.

The hospital’s representative proposed local authorities in Hà Nam Province install a telehealth system which connects the temporary hospital with the provincial general hospital, the Department of Health Examination and Treatment under the health ministry, Bạch Mai Hospital in Hà Nội and Hà Nam Province’s Department of Health.

According to Hà Nam Province’s Department of Health, all patients linked to the cluster in the province have been moved to the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hà Nội.

The province has more than 400 F1 cases and has tested 1,000 people.

Local authorities said the province was equipped with a testing machine able to take 400 samples a day. It is calling for social investment and assistance from Bạch Mai Hospital to increase daily testing to 1,500.

Hà Nam Province has imposed lockdown in Đạo Lý Commune in Lý Nhân District, the latest hotbed of COVID-19, starting from 1pm on Saturday.

Social distancing measures have also been implemented in two hamlets (Hamlet 5 Đồng Yên and Nội Độ Hamlet) in Chân Lý and Bắc Lý communes, Lý Nhân District for 14 days from 5pm on Saturday.

The two hamlets have nearly 500 households with more than 2,700 residents.

Restaurants and hair and beauty salons across the district have been ordered to close, as well as facilities providing cultural and sport services until further notice.

The district authorities have been required to co-ordinate with the provincial health department, police and military command to quickly trace all people who have come into contact with COVID-19 patients and isolate infections.

Local authorities instructed all departments, agencies, organisations and local administrations in the province to tighten the enforcement of pandemic prevention measures, including the suspension of events with large numbers of people such as weddings, parties and meetings.

Stepping up efforts

Meanwhile, provinces and cities which record people having contact with positive cases in Hà Nam are taking measures to control the situation.

A patient linked to Hà Nam cluster visited Tiên La Temple in Hưng Hà District, Thái Bình Province from 7am to 10am on April 25.

Local authorities of Thái Bình are tracking those people and tested 110 people linked to the case. All of them tested negative once.

In a related move, a Chinese expert who visited a number of places in the northern province of Yên Bái tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 after returning home to China.

The immigration office in China made the announcement on Friday.

The patient was part of a group of five Chinese experts who work at a mineral company located in Tân An Ward, Nghĩa Lộ Town in Yên Bái.

After completing a mandatory quarantine period, the expert visited places in the province including Bảo Yến Hotel in Nghĩa Lộ Town; Hải Chấn Hamlet in Văn Chấn District.

Local authorities traced seven F1 cases and 27 F2 cases linked to the expert.

Yên Bái Province has now suspended non-essential services and banned crowd gatherings from Saturday.

According to local authorities of northern Lai Châu Province, the province has 20 people who came into close contact with a COVID-19 patient at an industrial park in Đông Anh District, Hà Nội and with the Chinese expert in Yên Bái.

All of those 20 F1 cases have tested negative once.

In an effort to supervise quarantine sites, the central city of Đà Nẵng ordered hotels which serve as quarantine centres to check security camera footage and save video clips of all quarantine rooms for at least 14 days to ensure they can supervise the quarantine period and report violations like people leaving the rooms or having unsafe contact with others.

During an urgent meeting in Hà Nội on Friday morning after new COVID-19 locally-transmitted cases were found, Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính called on everyone to work together with the Government to fight against the pandemic.

“Individuals must be held accountable in COVID-19 response efforts,” he said.

The Government leader ordered relevant sectors and local administrations to take swift measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and voiced his concerns over the fact that there are localities, units and individuals that have not taken COVID-19 preventive rules seriously and lowered their guard against the virus.

He said the reception, quarantine and health monitoring of people entering Việt Nam has not been good enough, while the effort to manage and supervise those completing 14-day quarantine was insufficient, raising the risk of COVID-19 resurgence in the country. — VNS