Student Vo Thanh Dong checks people’s temperature. — Photo tuoitre.vn

The third-year students are among 340 students from the Da Nang University of Medical Technology and Pharmacy who volunteered to work at medical stations in the central city to support COVID-19 prevention and control work.

Enthusiastic support

As the gateway of Hoa Vang District with Dien Ban Town in neighbouring Quang Nam Province, Hoa Tien Commune has a large amount of traffic. To implement social distancing, a medical team was assigned there. Whenever a car arrived, Dong and Hien come to measure their body temperature.

If the people have high body temperature, Dong and Hien asked if they had been to Da Nang Hospital in July or if they had been to a place a COVID-19 patient had been.

Then they take notes and report to the local health station.

At Hoa Nhon Commune Medical Station, four other students of the university are supporting eight medical workers. In recent days, the medical workers have been extremely busy as the locality has reported several new cases of COVID-19.

Hoa Nhon Primary School No 1 set up a quarantine centre for more than 100 people who had close contact with COVID-19 patients, meaning medical workers must be on duty there.

Nguyen Thi Diem, head of the Hoa Nhon Commune Medical Station, told Tuổi trẻ (Youth) newspaper that during her 30 years of working in the health sector, she has never been as tired as now.

“Thanks to the students’ help, I have several minutes per day to relax,” she said.

Workers of a supervision station have quick lunch on the Bo Bo Hill, which is the gateway of Hoa Vang District with Dien Ban Town in the neighbouring Quang Nam central province. — Photo tuoitre.vn

‘Fire’ yourself

Facing the complex outbreak, the Ministry of Health's working groups have set up plans for worst-case scenarios in Da Nang.

To have local forces and support against the pandemic in Da Nang and the central region, the group of associate professor Tran Nhu Duong, deputy director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, organised a training course for lecturers in Da Nang. These people will be the core to train supportive forces throughout the city.

Reviewing anti-pandemic documents while waiting for assignments, third-year student Le Thi Thao said before she joined the campaign, she called home to inform her parents in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai.

Initially, her parents were against her heading towards the centre of the outbreak.

"But I'm determined to do something meaningful. As a medical student, with my knowledge, this is the time the society needs me the most," she said.

At the end of July, these students were in the middle of an exam. Instead of reading books and revising, the students joined the city’s anti-pandemic struggle.

Third-year pharmacy student Pham Minh Tam was one of the first to sign up following a call from the university.

With the experience of participating in the anti-pandemic campaign during social distancing in April, upon hearing the news that all three major hospitals in Da Nang were lockdown, Tam decided to help out.

Tam was assigned to Hoa Vang District Medical Centre. Carrying his luggage with two sets of clothes and some personal protective equipment provided by the school, Tam said that he would stay until the city had controlled the pandemic.

He said he wasn't worried because he believed in the protective equipment and the medical knowledge he had learned.

"I think it is a good opportunity for me to learn and enrich my medical knowledge,” he said.

Le Thi Thuy, deputy principal of the Da Nang University of Medical Technology and Pharmacy, told Tuổi trẻ that the university management board was very surprised because, after only one day of informing students about the campaign, more than 400 volunteered to join.

“Seeing them burning with enthusiasm, we seem to relive our youth,” she said.

Besides 350 students, the university assigned 10 workers of the testing faculty to support the municipal Centre for Diseases Control.

If the Ministry of Health needed, the university was ready to assign more, she said.

In addition, the university's teaching staff, trained by the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, can also participate in retraining medical students in the city when required.

An official of the Da Nang Department of Health said more student volunteers would be assigned to support quarantine centres.

Medical and pharmaceutical students will work at the centre for diseases control and seven district health centres in the area to support epidemiological surveillance and update data.  VNS

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