Nghe An: Urgently 'go to every alley, knock on every door' to find people related to the outbreak at Viet Duc Hospital

On October 1, Nghe An Department of Health issued document No. 4734 on screening, managing, and testing people who have been to/returned from Building D of Viet Duc Friendship Hospital.

This move came after Hanoi discovered a cluster of cases at this hospital. Immediately after that, at least 3 other provinces also discovered positive cases related to Viet Duc Friendship Hospital, including: Ha Tinh (1 case, a person who brought his father to the hospital on the 8th floor of building D), Nam Dinh (3 cases, related to relatives who took care of his father on the 7th floor of building D), Hung Yen (1 case, a patient who was treated on the 8th floor of building D and has been discharged from the hospital).

Viet Duc Friendship Hospital has locked down Building D. Illustrative photo

Nghe An Department of Health requests districts, cities, towns, and related units to mobilize the entire government system from district to grassroots level to resolutely and synchronously participate in epidemic prevention work. Assign responsible leaders to closely follow each locality and each neighborhood to provide timely direction. Organize screening and tracing work with a speedy, serious, and accurate perspective. In particular, focus on the following contents:

Assign the commune/ward/town police chief to direct the tracing team and the community Covid-19 team to seriously, substantially, and effectively review cases that have come to/returned from Building D of Viet Duc Friendship Hospital from September 19 to present, in accordance with the motto "go to every alley, knock on every door".

Make a list and organize testing by RT-PCR method (pooling samples) for all cases coming to/returning from Building D of Viet Duc Friendship Hospital from September 19 to present, organize classification of subjects, organize quarantine, and take samples according to regulations. Those who return from the 9th floor (Oncology Department), 8th floor (Digestive Department), Building D of Viet Duc Friendship Hospital must carry out centralized quarantine and take samples according to regulations.

For those who have been in contact with people returning from House D of Viet Duc Friendship Hospital since September 19, they are required to declare their health and monitor their health. If they have symptoms of fever, cough, difficulty breathing or suspected Covid-19 infection, they must go to a medical facility to be quarantined and have their samples tested promptly. Screening and testing must be completed before 8am on October 3.

In addition, the Department of Health also requested the Medical Centers of districts, cities and towns to advise the District-level Epidemic Prevention Command Center to direct tracing teams, community Covid-19 teams and related organizations to urgently review, verify information, make lists, make medical declarations, and conduct epidemiological investigations of cases returning from Building D of Viet Duc Friendship Hospital from September 19 to present. Absolutely do not be subjective or negligent in the face of any developments of the epidemic.

Direct the sampling teams in the area to immediately carry out the sampling and transportation of samples according to the instructions of CDC Nghe An. Report the review results to CDC Nghe An before 12 noon on October 3....