Director of Nghe An Department of Health warns of Covid-19 infection lesson in Da Nang

The Department of Health held an online conference on Covid-19 prevention. Photo: Thanh Chung

On the afternoon of August 4, Nghe An Department of Health held an online conference to discuss solutions to prevent and control the Covid-19 epidemic. Associate Professor, Dr. Duong Dinh Chinh, Director of the Department of Health, Deputy Head of the Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control of Nghe An province chaired the conference. Attending the conference were representatives of leaders of 21 districts, cities, towns; and medical units in the province.

13,413 cases returning from epidemic areas

According to the report of the Department of Health: To prevent the Covid-19 epidemic, Nghe An has been implementing drastic, timely, complete and correct prevention measures according to 5 principles: prevention, detection, isolation, zoning and suppression.

The province has urgently accelerated the tracing and screening, and has recorded 13,413 cases returning from Da Nang city, Quang Nam and Quang Ngai provinces. Up to now, these cases have all been advised to quarantine at home, closely monitor their health or quarantine at medical facilities.

Through screening and triage, the province has taken samples for testing from 500 cases in close contact, present at the same time as Covid-19 patients and cases returning from epidemic areas with suspected symptoms. All samples tested negative.

Following the direction of the Government, the Ministry of Health and the Provincial People's Committee, the health sector has reviewed and activated the Covid-19 testing system in Nghe An. The province currently has 6 medical units capable of testing 1,500 - 2,000 samples per day.

At the conference, delegates pointed out difficulties in the work of preventing and fighting the Covid-19 epidemic, focused on analyzing and proposing solutions, drawing experiences in epidemic prevention work; as well as proposing directions for epidemic prevention and control in the coming time.

Ensuring safety for high school graduation exams

Concluding the conference, Associate Professor, Dr. Duong Dinh Chinh stated: The Ministry of Health believes that the peak of the Covid-19 epidemic in Vietnam will be from August 20-30, 2020. In Nghe An, from August 1 to now, there have been basically no more people returning from the epidemic area. Therefore, Nghe An must focus highly and resolutely on epidemic prevention work in the next 10 days, not being negligent in any situation.

Taking samples of close contacts of patients. Photo: Document

In particular, the 2020 high school graduation exam will take place on August 9-10, so localities are required to do a good job of spraying rooms and disinfecting all high school graduation exam sites, completing before August 6, 2020; and implementing well the plans to ensure exam safety such as distributing masks and arranging hand sanitizer for candidates.

Medical examination and treatment units must ensure good facilities ready to treat patients; carry out patient flow and classification upon admission; and fully implement cross-infection prevention activities in hospitals. Through inspection, there is still a state of subjectivity and negligence. Units need to learn deeply from the lessons from Da Nang city.

Nghe An Provincial Center for Disease Control needs to continue to guide medical centers on sample collection; speed up testing; and be ready to support other medical units in emergency situations.

Associate Professor, Dr. Duong Dinh Chinh recommends: During this time, the elderly and people with underlying diseases should not leave the house unless absolutely necessary, and avoid gathering in crowded places.