On the morning of March 29, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc chaired an online meeting with 5 centrally-controlled cities regarding Covid-19 prevention efforts. Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Vuong Dinh Hue, Secretary of Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan; leaders of the 5 cities participated from various locations.
The hospital has transferred 5,113 patients to northern provinces and cities
At the meeting, Chairman of Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung stated that on March 19, upon receiving information from Bach Mai Hospital and the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology about 2 cases of nurses at the Tropical Hospital testing positive for Covid-19, the city urgently coordinated with the hospital to identify relatives, backgrounds, and proceeded to verify all close contacts F1, F2.
The city conducted testing and confirmed the case of the child of patient 86 testing positive for Covid-19; F1 and F2 were organized for isolation, and all related locations were disinfected. To date, no additional positive cases have been detected related to this case.
In light of this situation, on the evening of March 19, implementing the directive of the City Party Committee, the Chairman of the People’s Committee had direct discussions with the Director and Deputy Director of Bach Mai Hospital and directly with the Deputy Minister of Health, proposing to consider possibly closing and quarantining some departments in Bach Mai Hospital; to reduce the load by receiving and freezing all patients currently being treated there.
“However, this proposal from Hanoi was not accepted, and the Ministry of Health only implemented “freezing” certain floors and departments with positive patients. Subsequently, the hospital transferred 5,113 patients being treated at Bach Mai Hospital to northern provinces and cities, including 1,592 cases received by Hanoi. This may have missed the golden time to prevent transmission,” the Chairman of the People’s Committee said.
Just in the past 2 days, the city has verified the entire background of 1,592 patient cases and has made decisions on isolation; samples are being collected over two days; reviewing all individuals who visited these patients in the hospital.
On the afternoon of March 28, Hanoi conducted a review of all dialysis patients around Bach Mai Hospital; patients from provinces who are hospitalized and about 358 regular blood donors for Bach Mai Hospital. The city is compiling a list and making isolation decisions, and for difficult cases, the city will provide support.
Major risks continue for Covid-19 transmission at Bach Mai Hospital
However, in the city, there remain many risks from the largest and most complex outbreak at Bach Mai Hospital.
“Bach Mai Hospital currently has recorded 20 positive cases of Covid-19 (the Ministry of Health announced 16). There are cases who traveled with a delegation to Bach Mai Hospital 2 in Ha Nam or returned from Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh also testing positive. Reporting to the Prime Minister, it is very likely that there will be risks in a few days of having ‘small fire spots’ of Covid-19 in some northern provinces and Hanoi,” Mr. Chung said.
Additionally, according to the Chairman of Hanoi People’s Committee, Bach Mai Hospital has all the complex factors, with a high risk of infection as there are many severe patients; daily, there are 5,000-7,000 people seeking medical care.
But the most concerning thing is that after March 20, Bach Mai Hospital transferred 5,113 patients to provinces; there has been transmission outside. The risk of infection comes from nearly 3,000 HIV patients treated by nurse number 86 who distributed medicine from March 9 to March 14, which is very large.
The next risk comes from Truong Sinh Company with 23 women aged 25 to 57, who daily provide water bottles for all departments of the hospital. The porridge and pho cooking department supplies meals as required for patients. The cooking department daily provides meals for about 5,000-6,000 staff in Bach Mai Hospital at the second-floor building.
Furthermore, the hospital has about 2,000-3,000 students and trainees from Hanoi and other provinces who eat and study here, but they have been sent back since March 20.
“The biggest concern right now is the dining area open for everyone from outside society to eat. Information from the hospital indicates that from March 15 to 25, there were daily 600-700 people. On weekends, there were about 250 people. If patient number 170 indeed ate here 5 times and was infected, then I believe this number could spread even more..”
Hanoi proposes to announce positive Covid-19 cases
On the evening of March 28, Hanoi brought 613 individuals who are relatives of patients from Bach Mai Hospital to FPT University for safe isolation. It is necessary to disseminate information so that everyone who visits these addresses can verify the reasons for testing samples, which is related to the work.
Secondly, the city is closely coordinating with Truong Sinh Company to identify the residences of over 90 employees of the company from various provinces, but according to the Chairman of the People’s Committee: “Essentially, the good news is that today only 3 cases have returned to their hometown, the rest basically remain in the hospital.”
The city will continue to implement communication efforts in accordance with the direction of the Politburo and the Prime Minister “Fighting the epidemic like fighting the enemy” and this phase is very important, determining success or failure.
The city hopes to continue receiving the Government’s attention and support from the Central Steering Committee to help Hanoi obtain 15,000 to 20,000 rapid tests to deploy quick testing for dialysis patients, HIV patients, and blood donors related to Bach Mai Hospital.
The city also hopes to receive support for Covid-19 testing kits via PCR; to supplement the supply of medical equipment; ventilators. The Ministry of Health and the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology have allowed the Hanoi CDC to confirm positive Covid-19 cases, so Hanoi should be permitted to announce, to facilitate the facilities.
When Hanoi announces positive cases, the Chairman of the local People’s Committee will issue isolation decisions for F1 and F2 cases, and the public will willingly comply to avoid situations where the Ministry has not announced, and the public has not cooperated as it is currently. This is a necessary measure to prevent the epidemic because if positive cases are isolated early, it will reduce transmission.
