Medical workers collect samples of residents in HCMC’s District 3 for Covid testing. After detecting new Covid-19 cases, local competent forces in HCMC will locate their houses and provide each of them with a bag of home-based care medicine and a bag of food and necessities sufficient for one week – PHOTO: VNA

HCMC – After detecting new Covid-19 cases, the local competent forces in HCMC will locate their houses, provide each of them with a bag of home-based care medicine and a bag of food and necessities sufficient for one week, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long told a meeting with the city’s government.

Minister Long said that the important thing about home-based care for Covid-19 patients was conducting on-site Covid tests.

Carrying out on-site tests and providing home-based care, food and necessities would help reduce the transmission risk of the disease and minimize the possibility of the patient’s health condition worsening, he asserted.

The health official required HCMC to scale up the number of Covid-19 rapid response teams in communes and wards, to set up oxygen stations in areas managed by the rapid response teams or local authorities and offer oxygen therapy in time to patients in need of emergency assistance.

He also proposed that disciplinary measures be imposed on any public hospital in HCMC that refused patients, while private medical facilities would have their licenses withdrawn for doing so. The life and health of patients must be the top priority, the minister added.

As of yesterday, August 17, HCMC had reported more than 156,000 Covid-19 cases, still the highest in the country during the current fourth wave, which began in late April.