After more than a month of unceasingly fighting against the ongoing tough COVID-19 wave and applying unprecedented heightened movement curbs, the virus resurgence in Da Nang has been brought under control.

A Da Nang medical staffer administers COVID-19 vaccine to a corporate worker at the Tien Son Sports Arena. Photo: Xuan Dung

The number of coronavirus cases detected within 24 hours reached a highest record of 202 cases on August 27 and then significantly down to zero on September 18. This encouraging result demonstrated a strong determination and joint efforts made by the whole political system, the local authorities at all levels, and the whole community, along with timely- issued reasonable policies.

During a recent interview with Da Nang Newspaper, Da Nang People's Committee Vice Chairman cum Deputy Head of the municipal Steering Board for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, Ms Ngo Thi Kim Yen affirmed, the ‘stay-at-home’ mandate, an unprecedented COVID-19 preventive measure, applied to the city’s entire population, starting to take effect on August 16, has proved highly effective in isolating as many positive cases as possible from the community quickly and thoroughly, thus paving the way for heading towards a new normal.

Da Nang People's Committee Vice Chairman Ngo Thi Kim Yen

Under the mass COVID-19 testing, the ‘one door –one test’ approach with tests conducted on all local household representatives in residential areas with different levels of risk was conducted with a frequency of every 3 days.

Within one month, exactly from August 16 to September 16, the city carried out 7 testing phases on all local representative households.

On average, each phase, the local healthcare staff had to take nasal swab samples for COVID-19 testing from 350,000 - 370,000 people. This placed a huge work pressure to this frontline force.
Staffers involved in the sampling, testing and data analysis missions had almost no days off and had to work continuously during the daytime and nighttime, even during odd hours. Regardless of heavy workload and hardships, all of them have always pulled out all the stops to fulfill their assigned tasks in a prompt yet effective manners.

In just one month as above mentioned, more than 2,700 COVID-19 patients were detected, of whom 277 were found via the ‘one door –one test’ approach, whilst the remainder were their direct contacts.

The treatment regimen has always adjusted in the most appropriate manner to bring the death rate to the lowest possible level. Da Nang is one of the Vietnamese localities to offer the best COVID-19 treatment, especially in the field of active resuscitation.

Medical staff take nasal swab samples for COVID-19 testing before vaccination from locals who are the elderly and those with comorbid conditions at the Da Nang General Hospital. Photo: PHAN CHUNG

At the same time, the city has always made thoughtful preparations in terms of treatment facilities, medical equipment, supplies and patient beds. Till date, no shortage of ventilators or other medical equipment has been reported in the city.

The municipal administration has decided to open the Da Nang Field Hospital No. 2 in preparation for unpredictable developments of the virus resurgence in a bid to promptly handle the worst scenario. With the new field hospital, Da Nang will be capable of treating 6,000 COVID-19 patients, including 300 patients requiring resuscitation, at the same time.

Over the past month, the number of under-treatment COVID-19 patients has sharply decreased from 2,500 to under 900.

Reporting by PHAN CHUNG, LE HUNG- Translating by A.T