Director of Nghe An Department of Health: Will continue to take samples for community screening in 'hot' areas

Regarding this issue, Nghe An Newspaper had a conversation with Associate Professor, Dr. Duong Dinh Chinh - Standing Member of the Provincial Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control, Director of Nghe An Department of Health.

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung visited and encouraged the forces on duty at the quarantine area. Photo: Pham Bang

PV: In the fourth wave, the Covid-19 epidemic in Nghe An has broken out strongly with many cases and many hot spots appearing. Can you tell us more about the current epidemic situation?

Associate Professor, Dr. Duong Dinh Chinh:From June 13 to now, in the wave of epidemicCovid-19On Wednesday, with the Delta variant, many Covid-19 infections have appeared in Nghe An. The whole province has recorded 1,244 patients, in 21 localities. The number of cases increases every day, threatening the peaceful lives of people. Many localities in the province have had to implement social distancing and isolation to prevent and control the epidemic. The health sector has taken samples for testing for hundreds of thousands of people, bringing many patients into treatment.

At this time, the epidemic situation inNghe Anis still in a very complicated phase. There are many hot spots in the area. Hot spot number 1 is Vinh city, second is Yen Thanh district, in addition to localities such as Cua Lo town, Nghi Loc, Hung Nguyen, Nam Dan... In other districts and towns, basically, the outbreaks have been controlled.

These hotspots are assessed as having a high and very high risk of infection, identified through the criteria of the Ministry of Health, which are: There are many outbreaks in the area, especially F0 cases with unknown sources of infection; F0 cases appear on a large scale (over 50% of administrative units of communes, wards, and towns), such as Vinh city, 20/25 wards and communes have an epidemic... With these hotspots, Nghe An needs to pay special attention and focus on epidemic prevention and control.

Reporter: Recently, Vinh city has completed a large-scale community screening campaign to find and separate F0s from the community. Have the results of this campaign helped the city control and suppress the epidemic?

Associate Professor, Dr. Duong Dinh Chinh:This is the second time Vinh city has carried out a large-scale community screening sampling campaign. Compared to the first time, this time, the health sector and Vinh city collected samples 3 times more (nearly 290,000 people, reaching a rate of 84%. The rest was due to many different objective reasons such as people having collected samples elsewhere during the same period, or fearing infection so they called service units to come to their homes to collect...). And previously, only representative household samples were collected, but this time, the entire population was collected...

The Provincial Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control inspects a sampling point in Truong Thi Ward. Photo: Thanh Chung

The campaign was rushed to implement, but the Health sector and Vinh city had a relatively good preparation plan, so it was completed in a very short time of 2.5 days (from the afternoon of August 23 to the end of August 25). The Health sector alone dispatched 1,152 staff (including 152 medical staff from Ha Tinh province) to directly participate in sample collection, in addition to 500 additional staff to support supervision and supply for the sampling team.

Learning from the first implementation, this time, the sampling organization has overcome the shortcomings. The entire political system has joined in vigorously; coordination has been ensured. It can be said that the campaign was very successful and achieved the set goals.

Next, the Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control, the Health sector and Vinh City will re-evaluate the campaign results, thereby clearly identifying the "green zones", "red zones" and calculating specific next steps.

For example, through the campaign, we know that Vinh Tan ward is the "hottest" area of ​​Vinh city with a number of detected infections; followed by Hong Son, Hung Binh, Nghi Phu wards... In the "hot" areas, we must continue to collect community samples for further screening. For example, in Da Nang city, 3 consecutive screening tests have been conducted. The "green zones" that are completely free of the epidemic do not need to be retested; areas with moderate risk can take representative samples from households.

Reporter: It is known that treatment plays a special role in the prevention and control of the epidemic. Nghe An has proposed a plan to treat up to 5,000 patients and started building field hospitals to admit and treat patients. Can you tell us more about this?

Associate Professor, Dr. Duong Dinh Chinh:Nghe An has prepared a scenario of 5,000 hospital beds to treat Covid-19 patients. However, it must be said that building a field hospital is not simple, it is not simply taking a location and assembling it, but requires human factors and equipment.

Covid-19 patients are taken to Nghe An Field Hospital No. 3 for treatment. Photo: Thanh Chung

We have fully prepared human resources, assigning hospitals and medical centers to take charge of field hospitals. For Field Hospital No. 1, the main human resources are from Hung Nguyen District Medical Center, with additional reinforcements; Field Hospital No. 2 is assigned to Nghia Dan District Medical Center; Field Hospital No. 3 is assigned to the Rehabilitation Hospital; Field Hospital No. 4 is assigned to the Endocrinology Hospital; Field Hospital No. 5 and No. 6 will be assigned to the Lung Hospital and the Oncology Hospital...

The hospitals assigned to take full responsibility for the construction and appropriate human resources. The health sector has supplemented the most necessary equipment... It must be said that: Nghe An's field hospitals are built very systematically, ensuring scale and safety conditions for infection prevention and control, with all the essential conditions for treating patients. It is very fortunate that currently the treatment of Covid-19 patients in hospitals is highly effective, there have been no cases of cross-infection among medical staff.

In the current plan to build 5,000 hospital beds in Nghe An, human resources have been fully arranged and trained; the most difficult and worrying problem is still preparing emergency beds. Currently, we have 500 ventilators, of which 200 are high-function machines that can be used for intubation. For severe patients, each person needs a ventilator. However, these ventilators cannot be reserved for Covid-19 patients only, but also for patients with other diseases. Obviously, we are lacking equipment, for example, the whole province only has 3 dialysis machines. Since the epidemic began, we have not been able to purchase much. Our resources are currently focused on chemicals and testing, and in the context of this epidemic, it is very difficult to buy resources. In that situation, we are calling for support from the Ministry of Health and organizations, businesses, and individuals.

Currently, Nghe An is focusing on building 2 centers to treat severe Covid-19 patients in Area B of Nghe An General Hospital and Vinh Transport Hospital. The health sector has assigned 2 units to focus on training human resources; when there is a large number of patients (exceeding the current capacity of hospitals to treat severe patients), the sector will mobilize machinery and equipment to put the centers into operation. When the 2 centers are in operation, Nghe An will have 1,000 emergency beds.

Reporter: Recently, the Government and Nghe An province have actively mobilized the entire political and social system to actively participate in and improve the effectiveness of Covid-19 prevention and control. Can you tell us about the specific changes in Nghe An, especially in the task force?

Associate Professor, Dr. Duong Dinh Chinh:In recent times, Party committees and authorities at all levels have promptly corrected signs of negligence and subjectivity in epidemic prevention. After solutions such as strengthening inspections and checks, we have discovered many loopholes from which to find solutions to overcome existing problems. The biggest loophole is the manifestation of "the top tells, the bottom doesn't listen", "the top is hot, the bottom is cold", "fighting the epidemic on paper"...

Nghe An Provincial Police force conducts checkpoints and controls people and vehicles during the period of social distancing in Vinh city. Photo: Thanh Cuong

The Provincial Party Secretary and Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee has continuously directed through phone calls and meetings; reminded districts, cities and towns to strictly implement epidemic prevention work, especially doing well the "4 on-site" work; localities and sectors must actively coordinate to effectively fight the epidemic.

From this direction, districts, cities and towns in the province have strictly handled a number of leaders of Party committees and commune-level authorities to set an example and focus on overcoming the above-mentioned limitations. Sectors, localities and units have had a closer and more responsible relationship... In particular, when Directive No. 07-CT/TU of the Provincial Party Standing Committee on "Strengthening leadership and direction on Covid-19 prevention and control in the province in the new situation" was issued and the head of the Party committee was the head of the anti-epidemic steering committee, in each block, hamlet, ward, commune, district and town, there have been great and clear changes in awareness and action. All are focused on the task of fighting the epidemic. People now completely trust, accompany, support and strictly comply with the regulations on epidemic prevention and control. With these changes, we have the confidence to overcome difficulties and defeat the epidemic.

PV: Thank you!