Vingroup, the country’s leading real estate and retail conglomerate, on August 7 donated the first batch of 3,200 ventilators to the Ministry of Health to help combat the latest coronavirus outbreak.

Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long receives the donation from Vingroup

The package, including 3,000 VSMART VFS-410 ventilators and 200 invasive ventilators VFS-510, will be delivered to the Ministry of Health in two phases. The first 1,700 ventilators, including 200 VFS-510 devices, will be handed over within a week, starting August 7. 

Addressing the handover ceremony, Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long thanked Vingroup for lending a helping hand to the country's joint effort to curb the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

He singled out the group as a pioneer in Vietnam that has successfully researched and developed ventilator models to replace imported ones when supply chains were disrupted globally due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Vingroup was also the biggest donor that offered more than VND100 billion to the medical sector to purchase medical supplies at the start of the first outbreak several months ago, Long recalled. 

He expressed hope the group’s gifts will help the medical sector better treat COVID-19 patients, especially those in critical condition. 

Vietnam is in dire need of ventilators which are utilized to treat severe coronavirus patients. Since the fresh coronavirus outbreak occurred in Da Nang two weeks ago, many severe and critically ill cases have been reported.