COVID-19: HCM City hospital cases rise sharply, most asymptomatic

Notably, 52 cases are asymptomatic and they have all been vaccinated against the virus, Dr Nguyen Van Vinh Chau, director of the hospital told local media outlets.

These employees work in logistics services such as information technology, administration, finance, general planning, personnel and pharmacy.

All the infected employees have been isolated for medical surveillance and treatment, said Dr Chau.    

The HCM City Centre for Diseases Control is working closely with the hospital to carry out contact tracing, isolation, testing and disinfection.

“We are tracking down those in direct and indirect contact with the infected employees in an effort to break up the chain of transmission,” said Dr. Chau.

Preliminary epidemiological investigations show the cluster of infections is likely to originate from the community.  

By June 13 afternoon, the hospital had completed rRT-PCR tests for 887 employees, with 834 samples coming back negative, and 53 positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The HCM City municipal Health Department on June 12 decided to lock down the hospital for contact tracing and disinfection.

During a working session with the hospital’s management on June 13, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son asked the Municipal Department of Health to arrange other hospitals to receive and treat COVID-19 patients.

Under the local health sector’s June 9 decision, the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases has been transformed into a healthcare facility that specializes treatment for COVID-19 patients.

HCM City has confirmed more than 700 COVID-19 cases since the virus recurred in late April. Experts say though the fresh outbreak was brought under control, many cases have sporadically been detected in the community with unknown sources of infection.

The local administration has developed scenarios to receive up to 5,000 COVID-19 patients and place 10,000 people in quarantine.