Binh Duong prevents risk of Covid-19 resurgence after the holidays

The holidays on occasion of Hung Kings’ death anniversary, April 30 and May 1 of this year lasts five days while the Covid-19 infection case is increasing, leading to an increase in the number of seriously ill patients and hospital admissions. Provincial medical authority predicts that after the holidays, there is a possibility of resurging Covid-19 if people do not strengthen disease control prevention measures and actively inject Covid-19 vaccines.

People wear face masks as shopping at Aeon Mall Binh Duong.

Fear of a new disease wave

Statistics of provincial Department of Health in the past seven days show that the number of hospitalized patients infected with Covid-19 tends to increase, especially the number of patients receiving new treatment. Every day in the province, there are 2-3 patients receiving new treatment. On May 2, the whole province recorded 14 new cases, of which 12 cases with mild symptoms were monitored and treated at home and 2 cases required hospitalization.

Only in the past 7 days, the number of hospitalized patients in the province was 23 patients and 1 death. This is the highest number of hospitalizations and deaths since the fourth covid-19 wave and since the beginning of this year. More worrying is that there are currently 9 critically ill patients requiring oxygen mask, nasal oxygen, and invasive mechanical ventilation. Through the survey, most of the severe cases fell into the group of under-dose Covid-19 vaccines. Others are patients with underlying diseases such as obesity, elderly people with kidney failure, liver failure, cancer... Accumulating from the beginning of the year to May 3, the province recorded 428 cases and 1 death.

Commenting on epidemic situation in the province, Doctor Huynh Minh Chin, Deputy Director of provincial Department of Health, emphasized: “After a long holiday, it concerns the medical authority that a new Covid-19 wave is likely to appear in the province, especially when students at all levels, workers in companies and factories return to work.  The reason is that herd immunity to Covid-19 is starting to decrease while the coverage rate of boosting doses in some age groups is still modest. During the holidays, there was 1 death from Covid-19 who received only 1 dose of Covid-19 vaccine. Before that, the Provincial People's Committee also issued an official dispatch requiring six cases to wear masks during the holidays.

Analyzing high-risk groups that are prone to severe disease, Dr. Huynh Minh Chin said: “Those who have not received enough booster vaccines are likely to fall into the severe group, so they need to get more vaccines soon to ensure effective disease prevention. There are two main reasons for the increase in the number of hospitalized Covid-19 patients. One is that most of these patients have been vaccinated against Covid-19 for more than 6 months, the immunity from the vaccine has decreased, so the risk of infection is higher. The second reason is that the new Omicron variants make patients more susceptible to Covid-19. Therefore, children, pregnant women, the elderly, people over 50 years old with underlying diseases (liver failure, kidney failure, cancer, HIV, etc.), and obese people should quickly go to the vaccination sites to receive booster shots to protect ourselves against the unpredictable developments of the disease”.

Actively get vaccination to prevent severe disease

While the number of Covid-19 infections is increasing, Dr. Tran Van Chung, Deputy Director of Provincial Center for Disease Control, advised people in the province to well implement the message "2K + V" (masks, disinfection, and vaccines). According to Dr. Chung, besides maintaining response measures, vaccination against Covid-19 is still an important solution to create community immunity, prevent the disease from resurgence.

Discussing options to actively respond to the disease situation, Dr. Tran Van Chung, added: “Currently, preventive medicine units in the province are strengthening surveillance and early detection of suspected cases in the community, assessing more hospitalizations and severe cases to have better data to do information communication work about disease prevention and control, vaccination. At the same time, the units must intensify sampling and gene sequencing of case samples to promptly have information on variants."

After the holidays, students from all schools enter the end-of-semester exam. In that context, the local health branch continues to strengthen coordination with the education - training sector to ensure safety and prevention of epidemics in schools. Nguyen Thi Nhat Hang, Director of Provincial Department of Education and Training, said that in order to proactively take measures to prevent and control Covid-19 situation after the holidays, Department of Education and Training asks educational institutions to in the province to strengthen communication to raise awareness and change behaviors of children, students, officials, and teachers in protecting the health of themselves, their families, and the community.

“Educational institutions continue to coordinate with local health authorities to review and make lists of Covid-19 vaccinations for students at all levels. Teachers of classes and schools also regularly update disease information on Zalo groups, recommend parents and students to practice personal hygiene, wear masks on public transport vehicles and at mass gatherings; monitor and manage students' health to prevent and detect suspected cases early, prevent the disease from spreading in schools," said Nguyen Thi Nhat Hang.

Reported by Hoang Linh - Translated by Ngoc Huynh