The number of seriously ill patients who need support of ventilators fell to 1,918 on September 25 compared to 2,037 on September 23 and 2,174 on September21, she said.
The number of fatalities also saw a remarkable drop, with131 deaths recorded on September 26 compared to more than 350 cases in late August, Mai stressed.
The number of patientsdischarged from hospitals has also been on the rise. On September 25, 3,495 patients were declared to be free from coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, an increase of 700-800 cases compared to 5-6 days ago.
The positive signals in pandemic prevention and control were also reflected in thedeclining rate of positive cases detected through mass testing.
According to Deputy Director of the city’s Centrefor Disease Control Nguyen Hong Tam, the city began mass testing onSeptember 22 and an average of 1 million samples have been taken a day. The number of positive cases has decreasedgradually.
Specifically, the positive rate for SARS-CoV-2 was 0.2 percent in “greenzones” on September 22, compared to 0.1 percent on September 25. Notably, in "orangezones", only 0.3 percent of the tested cases were positive for SARS-CoV-2, whileon September 22, this rate was 0.6 percent. Similarly, test results in "red zones" showed that the rate of positive cases for SARS-CoV-2dropped sharply to only 0.4 percent, from 0.7 percent on September 22.
Facing such positive changesin the fight against the pandemic, the city’s Department of Health would devisemeasures that closely follow the real situation. The department plans toreduce the number of COVID-19 treatment hospitals and resume normal operations of facilities which were previously designated to only treat COVID-19 patients.
Mai said the city wouldrestructure the three levels in COVID-19 treatment facilities and retain thoseassociated with resuscitation centres, including Treatment Hospital No 13, 14and 16./.