A quarantine area at a hospital. The HCMC Department of Health has asked all hospitals in the city to get ready to admit and treat Covid-19 patients - PHOTO: VNA

HCMC - The HCMC Department of Health has issued an urgent dispatch asking all hospitals in the city to get ready to admit and treat Covid-19 patients.

All the hospitals should be well-prepared to send their employees, medical equipment and medicines to the city’s Covid-19 intensive care center when required by the municipal Department of Health, according to the department.

Besides, the general and specialized hospitals were asked to map out plans to separate their facilities into two areas with one treating non-coronavirus patients and the other for Covid-19 ones and suitably assign staff for the two areas.

These hospitals must operate round the clock once they receive the directive from the municipal department.

Asymptomatic Covid-19 patients will receive treatment at these hospitals, while critically-ill patients will be treated at the Cho Ray Hospital, the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases and the Covid-19 intensive care center.

The municipal department will set up several response teams with members from the department and hospitals to be in charge of converting the functions of hospitals, preparing equipment for field hospitals, treating Covid-19 patients, transporting suspected Covid-19 cases and taking care of medical workers.

Up to now, the city has had 10 healthcare centers admitting and treating Covid-19 patients and 15 hospitals for Covid-19 treatment, the local media reported.

On July 14, a Covid-19 intensive care center with 1,000 beds, which is converted from the inpatient treatment zone of the HCMC Oncology Hospital No. 2 in Thu Duc City, was put into operation, helping to raise the city’s capacity for Covid-19 treatment.