The entrance to the Tien Giang social protection center. As many as 68 Covid-19 cases have been detected at the center - PHOTO: MINISTRY OF HEALTH
HCMC – As many as 68 Covid-19 cases were recorded at a social protection center in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang this morning, August 14, comprising five employees and 63 people under protection at the center.
According to the Ministry of Health, the provincial steering committee for Covid-19 infection prevention and control and a delegation of the ministry in the province held an urgent meeting to work out solutions to combat the pandemic at the center, the local media reported.
The center has 86 employees and 357 vulnerable people under protection, mainly elderly, disabled and mentally ill people, children and underprivileged women. The center is divided into five areas—A, B, C, D and E---with 39, 101, 72, 102 and 43 people, respectively.
According to the Tien Giang Center for Disease Control (CDC), the first Covid-19 case at the center, an employee whose mother is a Covid-19 case, was found in area D on August 9. The center later tested all the people at the center and found 67 more cases, comprising 63 people under protection in area B and four employees in areas B, D and E.
Dr Nguyen Vu Thuong, head of the Ministry of Health’s anti-pandemic delegation in Tien Giang, said Covid-19 cases and those in direct contact with them would be quarantined at the center. The social protection center would be converted into a field hospital.
Covid-19 cases whose condition worsens will be moved to the Tien Giang Province’s intensive care unit.
The provincial Department of Health will train employees at the center to take care of and treat Covid-19 cases. Direct contacts of Covid-19 cases have been divided into three groups for quarantine: children and women, the elderly and others.
The provincial CDC will conduct group tests every two days, disinfect the center every day and monitor those at the center to prevent cross infection.
The competent agencies will also trace direct contacts of coronavirus-infected employees of the center.
As of this morning, Tien Giang Province reported 3,626 Covid-19 cases.
