COVID-19 patients are treated at a field hospital in HCM City. — VNA/VNS Photo Xuân Khu

HCM CITY  —  HCM City should strengthen public communications to encourage public trust in solutions that the city is carrying out to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam, head of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, said on July 15 at an online meeting with city leaders.

The city should provide more information about the analysis of the outbreak’s cause and development trends besides the number of new cases to help local residents understand and comply with preventive measures.

The city has reviewed and changed the testing process to shorten the time to receive test results to under 24 hours.p, according to Đam.

The city should continue applying IT to link test results and information about tests and then conduct the epidemiologic analysis for investigating and identifying the main areas that need contact tracing and testing.      

The city’s QR code systems should also be connected to each other and to the national system to create convenience for people to scan the code when selling at shops or travelling through checkpoints. These connections are useful for tracing contacts.

The QR code systems should also be integrated with testing results and health declarations.  

Đam said the city should also pay more attention to vulnerable people, especially those in residential areas with a large number of poor people.  

Nguyễn Thành Phong, chairman of the city People’s Committee, said that Thủ Đức city and districts had set up steering teams in charge of administering testing.

The city has focused on mass testing in its high-risk areas p, and test results have been provided within 12 hours for a single sample and 24 hours for pooled samples.  

At locked down areas, the city has instructed community-based COVID-19 teams to strengthen inspections to prevent transmission.

The city has also provided tickets to people to buy goods at traditional markets to limit mass gatherings at the same time. Prices of several products at traditional markets have slightly increased.

As of July 13, the city had set up 45 selling sites and had food trucks drive to its districts.

The city has allocated VNĐ195 billion (US$8.5 million) to support more than 130,000 freelancers.

The city has recorded 2,144 COVID-19 incidences from 6am on July 13 to 6am on July 14, most of them staying at concentrated quarantine facilities and locked down areas.  

Since April 27, the city has had a total of 18,802 cases.

The city has 15 designated hospitals for COVID-19 treatment and uses 10 apartment buildings, dormitories of universities and other facilities as field hospitals to treat new cases.

The city Department of Health has instructed all hospitals in the city and 115 Emergency Aid Centres to be available to treat COVID-19 patients.

Major hospitals in the city have been instructed to provide health workers, equipment and medicine to the COVID-19 Resuscitation Hospital if necessary.

General and specialised hospitals should make plans to divide into two separate facilities, including one for treating COVID-19 patients. 

Foreign patients with mild or no COVID-19 symptoms will be treated at field hospitals and brought to the Chợ Rẫy Hospital and Hospital for Tropical Diseases or COVID-19 Resuscitation Hospital if their condition worsens. — VNS