Da Nang field hospital to receive Covid-19 patients on Wednesday

The hospital, set up with funding from a private firm, will allocate 480 beds for Covid-19 patients with mild symptoms and 20 for critically ill cases.

Doctors mobilized from other cities and provinces, alongside 400 student volunteers, will manage the hospital and care for the patients.

With Da Nang the country’s largest coronavirus hotspot, the Health Ministry has for the first time dispatched hundreds of doctors and medical staff from different parts of the country to support its fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dr. Do Ngoc Son, deputy head of the emergency department at Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi, will serve as deputy director of the Tien Son field hospital.

The hospital construction completed after four days last Thursday to ease the burden on the local healthcare system. It is the second such facility in the city after another at a medical center with a capacity of 200 beds.

Vietnam has recorded 389 domestic cases in 14 cities and provinces since local transmission resurfaced on July 25, all of them linked to Da Nang, a top tourist destination. The country of 96 million has reported 15 Covid-19 deaths while globally over 730,000 have perished from the novel coronavirus.

Da Nang, a city of 1.1 million, adopted social distancing from July 28 with locals requested to stay home and maintain a distance of at least two meters in public.