key: cord-0747793-55pery6o
authors: Vuong, Nong Minh; Le Quyen, Nguyen Thi; Tra, Doan Thu; Do Van, Thanh; Tuan, Nguyen Quang; Co, Dao Xuan; Trang, Nguyen Thi Huyen; Cuong, Do Duy
title: The second wave of COVID-19 in a tourist hotspot in Vietnam
date: 2020-09-18
journal: J Travel Med
DOI: 10.1093/jtm/taaa174
sha: 5c8f34f99960d5a8f46b8a31c97113cb201af572
doc_id: 747793
cord_uid: 55pery6o

The second wave of COVID-19 in Vietnam started in the largest tourist city in the country (Da Nang), initially with nosocomial transmission which spilled over and resulted in widespread community transmission. We discuss the challenges and strategies to prevent a further nationwide outbreak.

tracing of all persons from Da Nang and stratified them into three groups. People with respiratory symptoms or those exposed to the three epicenter hospitals in Da Nang were placed in centralized quarantined and tested for SARS-CoV-2; other cases were isolated and monitored at home by local commune health staff.

In addition, a mobile application, named "Blue-zone" was developed and made freely available to all residents in Vietnam. By August 20, the application had exceeded 20 million downloads.

One of the biggest challenges of the outbreak in Da Nang was the high disease burden in the elderly with comorbidities as a consequence of the widespread of nosocomial transmission among patients at DNH. The proportion of severe or critical cases was above 10%, which was significantly higher than during the first wave where only five cases (1.2%) required ventilation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). There were 35 deaths, mostly among patients aged ≥ 60 years, and those with serious underlying medical problems such as end-stage kidney diseases, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, or cancer, in line with published data from the UK. 9

The second challenge was the asynchronous capacity across provinces for quarantine, contact 

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The global community needs to swiftly ramp up the response to contain COVID-19

Fangcang shelter hospitals: a novel concept for responding to public health emergencies

None.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.