VietNamNet Bridge - Two consecutive cold spells will hit the northern region this week with the temperatures dropping to between 5-8 degrees Celsius, warned the National Hydro-meteorological Forecast Center.

"Mountainous areas in particular are warned of hoarfrost and ice," said the center's deputy director Le Thanh Hai.

The cold weather is expected to cause rains in the east of the northern region and north-central coastal provinces and to last until mid-January.

The Tonkin Gulf, south-central regions, and off Truong Sa (Spratly) and Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelagos will continuously experience northeasterly winds at levels 8-9 (between 62-88kph) and rough seas with waves between 3-5m.

The north has been witnessing an unabated cold spell since early last week with average temperatures ranging between 10-12 degrees Celsius.

Ice appeared along the top of Mau Son Mountain in Lang Son Province last Friday when the temperature dropped below zero. Temperatures in other mountainous provinces dropped to between 1-6 degrees Celsius.

Thousands of kindergarten and elementary school students in Hanoi have stayed at home for the past several days because of the bitter temperatures. The municipal Department of Education and Training allows students to stay at home if the temperature drops below 10 and according to the chief of the department's secretariat, Nguyen Hiep Thong, schools are permitted to adjust their hours.

Thousands of children have been hospitalized with cold-related diseases.

The Central Pediatrics Hospital in Hanoi reported that it received more than 1,300 children for treatment on average each day, most of them suffering from flu viruses, respiratory or digestive disorders.

The number of child patients admitted to Bach Mai and St Paul hospitals has risen by 20 percent.

Doctor Dang Thi Hanh, deputy head of Tuyen Quang Province's General Hospital's Pediatric Department, said the prolonged cold combined with hoarfrost had caused many severe respiratory-related diseases in children, particularly in children under six, because of weaker immune systems.

The department has 70 beds but has received between 130-150 patients per day over the past several days, meaning it has often been two or three to a bed.

Then Huong, a resident from the Tay ethnic minority in Na Hang mountainous district, whose daughter was being treated at the hospital, said the low temperature caused her whole family to catch the flu.

Much of the livestock, in the mountainous areas in particular, have died. More than 140 buffaloes and cows are reported to have died in mountainous Bac Kan Province since early last week, causing losses of an estimated hundreds of millions of dongs.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat has asked the People's Committees of localities in the northern and north-central regions to promptly take measures to keep livestock warm and to encourage local farmers to clean and improve breeding facilities as well as plant grass and store food.

They were also instructed to provide financial aid to local, especially poor, farmers to help them protect their livestock and prepare funds to support farmers in case more losses are incurred.

Source: VNA