Two more Covid-19 patients in Vietnam have tested positive again after being discharged from hospital.Patient 348, 39 years old, in Hanoi’s Bac Tu Liem District returned to Vietnam on June 6 and was quarantined in a college in Hanoi. 

On June 18, he, his wife and their three children all tested positive for the virus. They were sent to the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi’s Dong Anh District for treatment. Until August 8, they were discharged from the hospital following their full recovery.

However, on August 23, they were provided with Covid-19 tests. The husband tested positive again for the virus while his wife and children remained negative.

He was moved to the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases again, while his wife and his children have continued isolating themselves at their home.

Another re-infected Covid-19 case is a 19-year old student, Patient 564 from the central province of Quang Nam.

She first tested positive for the virus on August 1 and was released from hospital on August 18. But, on August 22, she had a light fever and her test result came back positive for the virus. She is now being treated at Quang Nam General Hospital.

Local authorities have sterilised the two patients' houses and defined people who had come into close contact with them.

Nearly 100,000 people claim unemployment benefits each month

The MoLISA's Department of Employment forecast job losses may increase by about 100,000 every month

There were nearly 100,000 people applying for unemployment benefits each month this year while the monthly average in 2019 was just 60,000-70,000, according to an official of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA).

Tao Bang Huy, Deputy Director of the MoLISA’s Department of Employment, said over 686,200 people applied for unemployment benefits in the first seven months of 2020, up 32 percent year on year, equivalent to almost 100,000 claims monthly.

This department forecast the number of job losses may increase by about 100,000 every month, mainly in such industries as tourism, accommodation and food services, construction, transportation, and processing-manufacturing.

While 70 percent of all businesses may suffer from COVID-19 impacts, the number of furloughed employees or those with less work to do could rise to between 3.5 million and 5 million.

In the first half of 2020, 29,000 companies had to suspend operations for a certain period of time, rising 38.2 percent from a year earlier. Meanwhile, the number of people of working age with employment declined to 51.8 million, compared to 54.4 million in the same period last year.

Some sectors with strong job cuts included processing-manufacturing, accommodation and food services, education and training, wholesales and retails, and vehicle repair.

Although the labour market in Vietnam has shown signs of recovery, the resurgence of COVID-19 has added a further complication to businesses and their employees.

Vu Thi Thu Thuy, Director of the Population and Labour Statistics Department at the General Statistics Office, did not rule out the possibility of 5 million people becoming unemployed by the year’s end, noting that job losses may continue during the remaining months if business promoting solutions are not carried out drastically./.

HCM City strengthens protection for patients from COVID-19

Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Health has instructed health facilities to carry out methods to protect people in high-risk categories from COVID-19.

Facilities should apply the Ministry of Health’s 37 criteria for the prevention and control of COVID-19 and other acute respiratory infections as well as other regulations on prevention at hospitals, in addition to the city department’s 14 criteria on preventing facilities from becoming sources of transmission.

The department has also instructed health facilities to conduct health declarations and check temperatures of patients, their relatives and anyone visiting departments where seniors are treated and others with chronic diseases. Relatives should not be allowed to visit patients in these departments.

Health facilities should set up at least one booth at inpatient departments to isolate patients or their relatives if they have a fever and other symptoms of COVID-19.

They should not let patients share beds and should maintain a minimum distance between beds, according to department regulations. Separate areas for patients and their relatives at these departments should be set up.

One of the other preventive measures is to limit senior patients and those with chronic diseases from going to crowded areas in hospitals. These patients should be given priority for testing, ultrasounds and X-rays at their beds.

Patients with chronic kidney failure should receive dialysis as scheduled, and those who are quarantined and need dialysis should be taken to a separate area in health facilities.

Health facilities should closely observe departments where senior patients and those with chronic diseases are being treated to ensure compliance of health officials, patients and their relatives.

Inpatients should be discharged from hospitals when their health is stable, and the time for follow-up examination should be extended for no more than 90 days for patients with chronic disease.

Patients should receive their health records and be given follow-up examinations at health centres or district-level hospitals near where they live.

The department also instructed health facilities to communicate with discharged patients via digital means or phone about counselling and guidance on self-care at their homes.

Health facilities should strengthen telemedicine for older patients and those with chronic diseases, according to the department’s instructions.

Speaking at an online conference with ministries, provinces and cities held on August 21, Duong Anh Duc, Vice Chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee, said the city had had 16 COVID-19 incidences since July 25, including eight related to the outbreak in Da Nang. The remaining had returned from other countries and were quarantined when they arrived at Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

These patients were treated at hospitals and their health is stable, according to Duc.

As many as 53,719 people have returned from Da Nang to HCM City as of August 21, and they have been tested and have filled out health declarations.

The city had not recorded a locally transmitted COVID-19 incidence for 23 days, Duc said, adding that this reflected effective cooperation between local authorities and health officials in locating, tracing, testing and stopping the spread of the virus.

The city had isolated and tested 126 people who have entered the country illegally, including one who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. It was also carrying out surveillance of patients who had been discharged and those who had returned from quarantine areas in provinces. Foreign flight crews, seafarers and experts entering the city for work were still being quarantined.

Domestic terminals at airports should continue to be controlled, Duc said.

The city has 13 health facilities designated by the Ministry of Health to conduct tests with the capacity of 9,000 samples per day. They aim to have more than 13,000 samples per day.

In the upcoming time, the Department of Health will have specific measures for people who are given priority for tests. The Centre for Disease Control has been told to use software to supervise and classify people who are given priority for testing.

The city still requires limited gatherings and participation in nonessential activities. It has asked people to install the Bluezone application on their phones. The app helps detect and trace people who could be potential transmitters of the disease in the community.

People who do not wear masks in the city are fined.

Four more COVID-19 patients discharged from hospital

Four COVID-19 patients treated at Da Nang Lung Hospital were announced to be free from the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 on August 24 morning.

The patients, all in the central city of Da Nang, included 55-year-old male patient 582 who suffered from serious underlying chronic diseases.

They have tested negative for the virus from 3-6 times. After being discharged from the hospital, they will undergo home quarantine for 14 days.

Vietnam’s total COVID-19 cases remained at 1,016 as no new infections were reported in the country in the morning of August 24, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

Of the national tally, 674 cases were locally transmitted, with 534 recorded as from July 25. There have been 27 fatalities so far.

Among the active patients, 39 have tested for SARS-CoV-2 once, 49 twice and 28 three times.

A total of 70,620 people who had close contact with COVID-19 patients and came from pandemic-hit areas are under quarantine nationwide./.

HCM City strengthens protection for patients in high-risk group for COVID-19

The HCM City Department of Health has instructed health facilities to carry out methods to protect people in high-risk categories from COVID-19.

Facilities should apply the Ministry of Health’s 37 criteria for the prevention and control of COVID-19 and other acute respiratory infections as well as other regulations on prevention at hospitals, in addition to the city department’s 14 criteria on preventing facilities from becoming sources of transmission. 

The department has also instructed health facilities to conduct health declarations and check temperatures of patients, their relatives and anyone visiting departments where seniors are treated and others with chronic diseases. Relatives should not be allowed to visit patients in these departments. 

Health facilities should set up at least one booth at inpatient departments to isolate patients or their relatives if they have a fever and other symptoms of COVID-19.

They should not let patients share beds and should maintain a minimum distance between beds, according to department regulations. Separate areas for patients and their relatives at these departments should be set up.

One of the other preventive measures is to limit senior patients and those with chronic diseases from going to crowded areas in hospitals. These patients should be given priority for testing, ultrasounds and X-rays at their beds.

Patients with chronic kidney failure should receive dialysis as scheduled, and those who are quarantined and need dialysis should be taken to a separate area in health facilities.

Health facilities should closely observe departments where senior patients and those with chronic diseases are being treated to ensure compliance of health officials, patients and their relatives.

Inpatients should be discharged from hospitals when their health is stable, and the time for follow-up examination should be extended for no more than 90 days for patients with chronic disease.

Patients should receive their health records and be given follow-up examinations at health centres or district-level hospitals near where they live.

The department also instructed health facilities to communicate with discharged patients via digital means or phone about counselling and guidance on self-care at their homes.

Health facilities should strengthen telemedicine for older patients and those with chronic diseases, according to the department’s instructions.

Speaking at an online conference with ministries, provinces and cities held on August 21, Dương Anh Đức, vice chairman of HCM City People’s Committee, said the city had had 16 COVID-19 incidences since July 25, including eight related to the outbreak in Đà Nẵng. The remaining had returned from other countries and were quarantined when they arrived at Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport.

These patients were treated at hospitals and their health is stable, according to Đức.

As many as 53,719 people have returned from Đà Nẵng to HCM City as of August 21, and they have been tested and have filled out health declarations.

The city had not recorded a locally transmitted COVID-19 incidence for 23 days, Đức said, adding that this reflected effective cooperation between local authorities and health officials in locating, tracing, testing and stopping the spread of the virus.

The city had isolated and tested 126 people who have entered the country illegally, including one who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. It was also carrying out surveillance of patients who had been discharged and those who had returned from quarantine areas in provinces. Foreign flight crews, seafarers and experts entering the city for work were still being quarantined.

Domestic terminals at airports should continue to be controlled, Đức said.

The city has 13 health facilities designated by the  Ministry of Health to conduct tests with the capacity of 9,000 samples per day. They aim to have more than 13,000 samples per day.

In the upcoming time, the Department of Health will have specific measures for people who are given priority for tests. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has been told to use software to supervise and classify people who are given priority for testing.

The city still requires limited gatherings and participation in nonessential activities. It has asked people to install the Bluezone application on their phones.The app helps detect and trace people who could be potential transmitters of the disease in the community.

People who do not wear masks in the city are fined. 

Vietnam reports no new COVID-19 cases on August 24 morning

A site collecting samples for COVID-19 testing in Da Nang city

Vietnam’s total COVID-19 cases remained at 1,016 in the morning of August 24 as no new infections were reported in the country over the past 12 hours, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

Of the national tally, 674 cases were locally transmitted, with 534 recorded as from July 25.

As many as 568 patients have made full recovery. There have been 27 fatalities so far.

Among the active patients, 39 have tested for SARS-CoV-2 once, 49 twice and 28 three times.

A total of 70,620 people who had close contact with COVID-19 patients and came from pandemic-hit areas are under quarantine nationwide.

Another COVID-19 patient dies, death toll at 27

Another COVID-19 patient died on August 23 morning, raising the death toll in Vietnam to 27, according to the Ministry of Health’s anti-COVID-19 task force in the central city of Da Nang.

The latest death was Patient No.577, a 73-year-old woman living in Lien Chieu district. She had a history of end-stage chronic kidney failure, heart failure and high blood pressure.

She died at Hoa Vang district’s medical centre due to septic shock, multi-organ failure and pneumonia related to the novel coronavirus.

Vietnam had no new cases of COVID-19 to report on the same day’s morning, leaving the national count at 1,014 as of 6am, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

The tally included 672 locally-transmitted cases, with 532 ones recorded since July 25.

By now 563 patients have been given the all-clear.

Among the patients under treatment across the country, 40 have tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 once, 49 negative twice and 41 negative three times.

A total of 77,380 people who had close contacts with patients or came from pandemic-affected areas are being quarantined.

Porridge shop owner mistakenly placed under quarantine

A porridge shop owner in the central province of Quang Tri was mistakenly forced into quarantine after a COVID-19 patient said she had visited the shop for dinner.

It took three days in the local concentrated quarantine centre for the shop owner to realise her stay there had to be a blunder.

She remembered she had closed her shop, Ngoc Lan, on the day the patient said she had been there for dinner.

After she related her story back to authorities, the patient realised she had given the wrong name of the porridge shop.

Nguyen Duc Sam, chairman of Phong Bình Commune’s People’s Committee, said Patient 833, who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on August 9, reported that she went to Ngoc Lan porridge shop at 7.30pm on August 4 for dinner.

The patient was urged to retrace her travel history and realised she had actually went to Ngọc Lý porridge shop instead, located right next door to Ngoc Lan.

Ngoc Ly’s shop owner and the employee who had actually come into contact with the patient were immediately quarantined.

Those who had contact with these two people have been traced and asked to self-quarantine at home.

And the unlucky woman, who was wrongly quarantined due to the patient’s mistake, will have to stay in the quarantine centre for 14 days until she’s given the all-clear.

Let’s hope no other COVID-19 patients will make the same mistake and the two porridge shop owners differentiate their branding a tad. 

Ten patients recover from COVID-19 on Monday including one with critical underlying diseases

Four COVID-19 patients in Đà Nẵng City and six others in Hà Nội were given the all-clear Monday.

They are Patients 536, 537, 544, 673, 677 and 785 who received treatment at National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hà Nội and Patients 807, 915, 922 and 582 treated at Đà Nẵng Lung Hospital.

All the patients have tested negative for the SARS-CoV-2 three to five times and are in stable health conditions. They will be quarantined and medically observed for another 14 days at home, however.

Of the recovery cases, Patient 582 – a 55-year-old man living in Đà Nẵng City’s Hải Châu District, was critically-ill at one stage due to his underlying diseases of high blood pressure, heart failure and anaemia.

The patient was taken to the hospital on July 31 and after being infected with COVID-19, he fell into critical condition with damage to his lungs and heart with already existing diseases of increased blood pressure and heart failure.

He was treated with ECMO, dialysis and plasma exchange.

On August 16, the patient was given the all-clear from SARS-CoV-2 but was not discharged from the hospital due to poor health.

Lê Thành Phúc, director of Đà Nẵng Lung Hospital said that until now, the patient’s health has improved much with no fever, no breathing difficulty. He can eat well now and all his health indicators are normal.

Phúc added that the patient tested negative for the SARS-CoV-2 virus six times on August 8, 10, 13, 14, 16 and 23.

The ten latest recovery cases brought the number of total recovery cases in Việt Nam to 578.

The country’s total COVID-19 cases stand at 1,016.

Of the national tally, 674 cases were locally transmitted, with 534 recorded from July 25 when the outbreak in Đà Nẵng and neighbouring localities started.

There have been 27 fatalities so far, all connected to the Đà Nẵng outbreak.