Vietnam willing to support Laos in COVID-19 fight: Health Minister

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam is willing to share its experience in COVID-19 prevention and control with
Laos, said Minister of Health
Nguyen Thanh Long in a virtual discussion with his Lao counterpart Bounfeng
Phoummalaysith on April 29.

Expressing his gratitude towards the support of the
Vietnamese Government and the Ministry of Health for Laos and its people in the
past time, Bounfeng informed that since April 20, Laos has been
hit by the pandemic, which has spread to 15 out of 18 provinces nationwide.
The national count of infection cases has been on the rise, with new infections
mostly resulted from illegal immigrants, he said.

The Lao minister said there is no death from the disease so far,
however, central-level hospitals in Vientiane are now filled up with COVID-19 patients
and Laos have put temporary COVID-19 treatment facilities into operation to meet demand.

Having said Laos is in need of about 10 COVID-19 testing Real-time
Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) machines with a testing capacity of 40,000
samples a day, he asked for ’s assistance in terms of equipment, and materials for pandemic prevention and treatment of patients.

 

The minister also proposed Vietnam to send RT-PCR experts to help Laos and share experience in prevention and control as well as treament of patients.

For his part, Long shared Vietnam’s experience, emphasising the nation’s speedy actions, including drastic contact tracing for prompt quarantine and large-scale testing. To date, over 2 million
Vietnamese have been tested for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, while a remote
medical examination and treatment system, dubbed the Telehealth, that connects
1,500 COVID-19 treatment facilities nationwide have been established so that patients
could receive top experts’ support from anywhere.

The minister told his Lao counterpart that the Vietnamese Party
and State had decided to present Laos with 200 ventilators, 2 million facemasks, and 10
tonnes of chloromin, and other equipment.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Health will send experts to help Laos set up
a testing system as soon as possible, he said, adding that those with expertise
in establishing COVID-19 treatment hospitals, particularly the intensive care
unit, will also be dispatched to the neighbouring nation.

Via virtual connection with the Telehealth installed by
Vietnamese engineers at treatment facilities of , COVID-19 experts in Vietnam
will assists Lao doctors in tackling complicated cases, Long noted.

Vietnam is ready to dispatch a plane to carry the cargo and Vietnamese experts
to Vientiane whenever the Lao side can arrange, he affirmed./.