Vietnam dismantles last Covid field hospital

Tang Chi Thuong, director of the HCMC Department of Health, on Friday said the last Covid-19 field hospital in the southern metropolis has been left ready to be re-activated within 48 hours should the pandemic ever return to its heights.

But now that Covid-19 has been removed from group A, Vietnam's list of dangerous infectious diseases that spread quickly and widely and have a high mortality rate or an unknown causative agent, Thuong said the health department would transfer equipment at the field hospital to other hospitals in the city.

Over the past year, the field hospital in Binh Chanh District has had no patients, and most of its equipment has already been distributed to active hospitals.

The field hospital began operation in August 2021, following two months of construction. It had around 3,500 beds and an ICU with 500 beds.

During the height of the pandemic in HCMC, the city had established 15 field hospitals to quarantine and treat Covid-19 cases.

Last week, a decision approved by Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha removed Covid-19 from group A, which includes H5N1, all types of plague, smallpox, and cholera.

Over the past four years, Vietnam recorded over 11.6 million cases of Covid-19.

Over 43,000 people died from the novel coronavirus, accounting for around 0.4% of all cases. The disease's death rate has dropped from 1.86% in 2021 to 0.1% in 2022 and 0.02% in the first eight months this year.

The number of Covid-19 cases this year has dropped to a 12th of 2021, and a 68th compared to 2022.