HCMC gears up for possible Covid surge

Covid-19 cases in Ho Chi Minh City have risen slightly following the end of the Lunar New Year holiday and after students returned to school.

The city recorded nearly 3,500 cases in the past week, nearly three times the earlier week, although severe cases and deaths remain low.

During the Tet holiday, the number of daily cases in the southern city dropped dramatically, going from a few hundred to only a few dozen cases. But cases have quickly caught up to previous levels at around 500-700 a day in the past days. It recorded 849 cases on Saturday.

Over 90 percent of HCMC’s population have been vaccinated against Covid-19, and most active cases are either asymptomatic or mild.

In preparation for a possible Covid-19 surge, Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Health Nguyen Van Vinh Chau has called for enhanced Covid-19 treatment capabilities, both at home and in medical facilities.

The health department has requested that each mobile medical station and each Covid-19 community care team have one doctor and one or two nurses capable of managing 50-100 families with Covid-19 cases.

Teams without doctors would receive support from medical stations to be able to take care of 10-20 families reporting Covid-19 infections.

HCMC, once the epicenter of the pandemic, has recorded over 519,000 Covid-19 cases, with 20,271 deaths.