Professional actions and efforts made for tracing Covid-19 infection

Update: 30-03-2021 | 13:54:17

The Chinese Covid-19 patients just been discovered in the province was a patient on an illegal entry. Previously, the biggest difficulty in the epidemiological investigation was that the patient could not speak Vietnamese and English, but by the investigation operations, the health sector had coordinated with the police and related departments regarding the detail of the process that he entered Vietnam illegally.

Functional forces set up posts to lockdown Road D35 of Viet Sing Residential Area where the illegal nation entering patient was working. Photo: Minh Duy

Investigator and psychologist alike

Luong Van Tam, an epidemiological investigator at Thuan An City Medical Center - who directly investigated the first epidemiological case of a Chinese infection, said he was appointed by the Board of Directors of Thuan An Medical Center. On getting to the office of Binh Duong Ban Thach Construction Company Limited Viet Sing residential area at An Phu ward of Thuan An city to notify the positive result of Covid-19, we arrived at the office at night. The patient could not speak Vietnamese or English; we had to exploit epidemiological information through his wife.

In more than 1 hour, the competent forces only investigated patients who entered Vietnam from March 2020. And the information on entry date, time, border gate or airport was not clear. In the spirit of encouragement, sharing with the Covid-19 positive case combined with investigation and tracing operations, the provincial health sector cooperated with the police and related departments to continue to expand the investigation. In order to make the patient and his family and relatives comfortable and trust, the investigator cautiously and skillfully encouraged him to gradually remember all cases of his close contact.

Sharing about the epidemiological investigation, Dr. Nguyen Hong Chuong, Director of Department of Health, said that the epidemiological investigation requires soldiers to prevent and fight the epidemic as "detectives". The patient's track, paths, locations, contacting people require the work of a psychologist judging each gesture to know that the patient is cooperating in giving correct and complete information about all relationships. In epidemic prevention and control, time is golden and only one contact who is not promptly sampled and isolated can exponentially spread the disease in the community. In addition to the pressure of time and workload, preventive medicine workers also face uncooperative actions.

“Binh Duong advocates speedy tracing and makes use of every second and every minute to investigate epidemiology many hours after Covid-19 patient is hospitalized. The successful lesson in the epidemiological investigation in Binh Duong is the unified spirit and power of the whole political system, sectors, unions and localities joining hands to investigate to the end for blocking the risk of epidemic spread in the community,”said Dr. Chuong.

The tracing efforts

Through the investigation, the story of a patient infected with Covid-19 who illegally entered the country opened. Important information milestones were shared cooperatively by patients. Specifically, in January 2021 (he could not remember the date), the patient went to Moc Bai border gate, Tay Ninh province to exit to Cambodia to work with his partner. By March 2021, the Covid-19 epidemic in Cambodia became more and more complicated, the patient returned to Vietnam through Moc Bai border gate of Tay Ninh. At 24:00 on March 24, the patient hired a man to bring guests from Cambodia to Vietnam through illegal paths to return to Thuan An city. This man used a motorbike to illegally enter Vietnam through Moc Bai border gate of Tay Ninh province.

When entering the territory of Vietnam, out of the border area, the patient was arranged by the man to board a 4-seater car (the number plate was unknown). The process of moving from the Moc Bai border gate area of Tay Ninh province to Binh Duong, only the patient and the driver on the car, no contact, no stopping anywhere was recorded. At 3 a.m. on March 24, the patient returned home at No. 259-260, The Oasis 2 Specialist village, An Phu ward, Thuan An city to rest at home with his wife and two daughters. Around 10-11 o'clock on March 24, the patient drove a personal car to the workplace, without contacting anyone. Because the patient was afraid of Covid-19 infection, he returned home and asked his wife to contact him, and booked a schedule at the Testing Center in Ho Chi Minh City from 11 a.m. to 7 a.m. on March 24.

At 7:00 a.m. on March 25, the patient and his wife got on a yellow car with the driver's address in Viet Sing residential area, An Phu ward to the Ho Chi Minh city Disease Control Center. After completing the Covid-19 test, the patient and his wife were taken home by the driver. During the process of moving from Ho Chi Minh city home, the patient, his wife and the driver did not stop and did not contact anyone until the medical staff came to the house and informed the patient of his Covid-19 infection.

Currently, with the motto of speedy tracing and blocking the risk of disease spreading in the community, Binh Duong has traced 15 cases of F1 and 89 F2 related to this infection case. In addition to tracing, implementing concentrated quarantine, spraying and disinfecting the environment, the provincial health sector also actively took 16 aggregate samples of 60 people in Viet Sing residential area, where the patient lives. Currently, 13 cases of F1 and 89 cases of F2 contacts have negative results,while the 2 cases of F1 are waiting for the results. Currently, the provincial health sector has issued an urgent notice to find a motorbike driver to take the patient from Moc Bai of Tay Ninh to Binh Duong. Thus, with a positive case of Chinese people, in just 1 day, Binh Duong has mastered the epidemic situation, not letting the epidemic spread in the community.

Reported by Kim Ha – Tanslated by Vi Bao

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Professional actions and efforts made for tracing Covid-19 infection

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