The hospital, established on June 26 on the premises of a dormitory of the Vietnam National University in Thu Duc City, is treating 4,423 Covid-19 patients in total, with most asymptomatic or bearing mild symptoms.

So far, it has discharged 1,721 patients in all.

Among those that have been sent home, 190 remain coronavirus positive.

However, these patients all have a low virus concentration and could continue treatment at home, said Nguyen Thanh Truong, the hospital director.

Starting last week, HCMC, which has for weeks been the epicenter of Vietnam’s ongoing Covid-19 wave, decided to cut the hospitalization period for uncritical Covid-19 cases.

After staying at a hospital for a week, patients would be tested, and if the result is negative or shows a low viral concentration, be sent home two days later.

Once at home, they would be tested twice more on the 14th and 21st days.

The move came as the number of infections in the city has increased sharply, at more than 39,500 as of Wednesday morning, prompting it to categorize patients into four groups: asymptomatic, those with mild symptoms, those with underlying medical conditions or suffering comorbidities prior to Covid-19, and severe patients.

In an urgent statement released Wednesday, the city regulates more specifically that after seven days in a field hospital, if the cycle threshold (CT) is bigger than or remains at 30, patients would be sent home.

The CT is a semi-quantitative value that can broadly categorize the concentration of viral genetic material in a patient sample following testing by real-time PCR as low, medium or high.

In case the CT is higher than 30 and yet the patient’s condition does not grow more complicated, she or he would be tested every other day. Once the results are lower than 30 or return negative, the patient would be released.

Once at home, all patients would be monitored and must follow health authority guidance, including reporting their health conditions daily.