Thoi Hoa makeshift hospital for Covid-19 treatment in the southern province of Binh Duong, the biggest of its kind in Vietnam, will be shut down in late October as the outbreak has subsided.

The hospital was set up with 37,000 beds in a workshop in Ben Cat Town of Binh Duong Province.

Besides medical equipment and fixed oxygen ventilators, the hospital was also equipped with modern digital management software and high-speed wifi, among others, to ensure effective management and give the best care to patients.

Covid-19 patients at Thoi Hoa makeshift hospital are discharged. Photo: tienphong.vn

The biggest Covid-19 treatment facility in the nation used to treat more than 20,000 patients at its peak. Currently, Thoi Hoa hospital has only 300 patients left.

These patients would be transferred to other medical facilities in the province to return the premises to the factory by the end of this month.

The hospital started operation in early August as the number of infections escalated in Binh Duong hitting 4,000-6,000 cases per day.

In addition to Thoi Hoa, the province has dismantled other field facilities for Covid-19 treatment since it allowed patients with mild symptoms to self-isolate at home and be monitored by mobile medical task forces.

Binh Duong is the second-hardest hit locality in the latest Covid-19 wave that broke out in Vietnam on April 27. It has so far recorded nearly 227,000 cases, with more than 8,000 patients still under treatment in makeshift hospitals.

On October 19, Nguyen Lan Hieu, director of the Hanoi Medical University, proposed a new strategy to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on fighting the coronavirus amid the "new normal".

Thoi Hoa makeshift hospital is empty. Photo: tienphong.vn

Accordingly, localities with high Covid-19 vaccination rates should shut centralized quarantine zones and makeshift hospitals, and replace them with Covid-19 care networks that treat patients at home.

The director added that only severe Covid-19 cases, including patients with underlying conditions and those who are unvaccinated, need to be taken to the hospitals for treatment.

"Such a strategy could be applied in all localities with high vaccination coverage like Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, and Hanoi," Hieu said.

He stressed the country needs to promote resilience in co-existing with Covid-19, adding that reducing the death rates should be the foremost goal.

The director said that the biggest lesson to learn from the pandemic was the need for enhancing medical capabilities across the board, and should not be centralized in certain referral hospitals.

Since the pandemic hit the country in late April, Vietnam has documented 872,812 Covid-19 cases, the health ministry’s data shows.

As of October 22, 877,484 infections have so far been confirmed nationwide, including 798,124 recoveries and 21,487 fatalities, in 62 out of the country’s 63 cities and provinces.