Eight medics contract coronavirus after treating Covid-19 patients

On the night of July 22, the Emergency Resuscitation Department of the hospital, one of the largest in the Mekong Delta, received three patients seeking emergency aid.

Of the patients, two had tested positive once for the new coronavirus and one had been confirmed a Covid-19 patient by the time they were admitted.

They had been transferred from two other hospitals in the city, capital of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, after their conditions grew worse.

As two of them had suffered severe respiratory failure, medics at the Can Tho hospital had to quickly perform intubation and emergency procedures, according to a report by the municipal Health Department.

Timely aid saved the two patients, who have continued receiving treatment at the hospital. All three patients later tested positive via real-time PCR.

Yet since the administration of emergency aid had apparently exposed medics to the virus, the hospital has tested the entire team involved.

As shown via PCR tests on July 24 and 25, eight medics were confirmed as positive for the new coronavirus.

They are seven doctors and nurses who had directly saved the patients, and the hospital’s director, Tran Quoc Luan, who monitored activities at the Emergency Resuscitation Department that night.

Among them, all had been vaccinated against the coronavirus, with some having received two doses.

The Health Ministry has yet to announce them as official Covid-19 patients. However, a top hospital official said recently all eight are in stable condition and that PCR tests results arriving Monday night showed they had all tested negative once.

The hospital has already tested more than 250 others, who are staff and patients at the hospital, with all returning negative results.

After the incident, the hospital continues to operate as normal with stringent measures to prevent any possible Covid-19 threat.

Can Tho has recorded 393 Covid-19 community cases so far in the new wave that hit Vietnam three months ago.