The first field hospital in Nghe An is free of Covid-19

On the morning of September 22, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hai - Head of Field Hospital No. 4 said that the hospital had temporarily stopped operating for 1 day after being free of Covid-19. "More than 30 medical staff are being quarantined for 7 days at a hotel, then will return home to monitor their health for another 7 days, and then return to work as usual," Mr. Hai said.

Inside Field Hospital No. 4. Photo: Tien Hung

Field Hospital No. 4 was requisitioned from a hotel on the beach of Cua Lo town with a capacity of 250 beds. Medical staff were mobilized from Nghe An Endocrinology Hospital, in which Deputy Director of Nghe An Endocrinology Hospital Nguyen Thanh Hai was assigned to be in charge of Field Hospital No. 4. This is a place to treat mild and asymptomatic patients. Activated since August 25, the hospital has treated and discharged more than 300 patients. This is also the field hospital with the most children in Nghe An with nearly 100 children.

Field Hospital No. 4 is free of Covid-19 after nearly 1 month of operation. Photo: Tien Hung

After the epidemic entered, Nghe An province established 6 field hospitals, in addition to the Tropical Disease Center (Nghe An General Hospital), to treat severe and critical patients. However, Field Hospital No. 6 did not need to be activated after the decision to establish it because Nghe An did not record many more patients.

As of the morning of September 22, Nghe An still had 140 Covid-19 patients being treated, most of them at Field Hospital No. 3 and the Tropical Disease Center. To date, 15 Covid-19 patients have died, most of them elderly and with underlying diseases.

Child patients at Field Hospital No. 4 receive Mid-Autumn gifts before being discharged. Photo: Tien Hung

According to Mr. Dau Huy Hoan - Deputy Director of the Department of Health, this week, field hospitals No. 1, No. 2, and No. 5 will also temporarily stop operating due to being free of Covid-19. "Currently, these field hospitals also have very few patients. We are gradually sending medical staff to centralized quarantine. Within this week, if all patients are not discharged, we will gather them and transfer them to Field Hospital No. 3 for further treatment. Other hospitals will temporarily stop operating," Mr. Hoan said, adding that although the epidemic has been basically controlled, the health sector will still keep Field Hospital No. 3 as a place to treat mild and asymptomatic patients.

To date, Nghe An has recorded 1,812 Covid-19 cases. At one point, the entire province had more than 1,000 patients being treated at the same time. In that context, Nghe An province had to decide to establish two field hospitals at the same time, and even made plans and conducted surveys to establish additional field hospitals No. 7 and No. 8...