HCMC – The Mekong Delta’s largest intensive care center, which is located in Can Tho City, is expected to be put into operation in the next few days and will be able to receive severely- and critically-ill Covid-19 patients transferred from other localities in the delta, said a local health official.

Due to the spike in new cases in the delta, the Ministry of Health had earlier decided to set up an intensive care center at the Can Tho Central General Hospital for treating severely- and critically-ill coronavirus patients in the region. This is among the 12 national intensive care centers established by the ministry across Vietnam. Pham Thanh Phong, deputy director of the Can Tho Central General Hospital, told Thanh Nien newspaper on August 8 that the intensive care center has 200 beds. The installation of the center is being implemented round the clock to be put into service by the middle of this week. With a donation worth over VDN50 billion from Techcombank, all the equipment needed for the center was gathered in the city. This includes 40 high-functioning ventilators, 30 high-flow nasal cannula machines and 106 patient monitoring machines. The human resources as well as all medical equipment to serve the center’s operations are ready, Phong added. Up to now, this Mekong Delta city has reported more than 2,100 coronavirus cases just one month since the first domestic infection was found at the Tan An wholesale market in the city’s Ninh Kieu District. Although the city had locked down affected areas and implemented the stay-at-home mandate, the number of new cases is on the rise. Currently, 12 hospitals in the city have admitted Covid-19 patients, including local fixed hospitals and eight field hospitals. At the Can Tho Central General Hospital, it is treating 14 severely-ill coronavirus patients transferred from the Dong Thap, Tien Giang provinces and other areas in Can Tho. Of them, nine have to rely on ventilators, three are under blood purification treatment and one requires ECMO support.