Staff of 7A Military Hospital conducts SARS-CoV-2 tests. (Photo: SGGP)
More than 3 weeks after Vietnam’s report of the first case in the community in Da Nang, the number of patients has increased dramatically, at 866 as of 6a.m on August 12, according to statistics from the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control. To deal with the complicated situation and high infections in the community, the Ministry of Health (MoH) has identified that heightening capacity and speeding up of SARS-CoV-2 virus testing is the top priority to promptly detect outbreaks, thus quickly implementing pandemic control measures.
To improve COVID-19 testing capacity, the MoH has recently coordinated with the Vietnam Social Insurance to issue guidelines on testing, with an aim to expand testing for medical facilities with social insurance and health insurance contracts, as there are 2,500 facilities of this kind in the country.
“We want the testing to be done in all medical facilities to create favorable conditions for people,” said Nguyen Thanh Long, MoH Acting Minister. “High-risk people will be tested in these facilities with fees paid by health insurance.”
He added that since the first case of infection in the community in Da Nang, the MoH has used all plans to improve testing capacity. As a result, the testing speed has been raised nearly three times higher than during the peak of the pandemic in April.
In Hanoi, Nguyen Khac Hien, Director of the city Health Department, said that the city has 4 machines for RT-PCR with the capacity of 1,000 samples per day. Meanwhile, 11 hospitals can conduct the tests with some 2,500 samples per day.
Hanoi has received 30,00 test kits and other materials for tests from sponsors. In addition, the Hanoi Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has worked with the Military Academy and the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology to satisfy the demand of material for tests, striving to test 70,000 people in Hanoi coming from Da Nang.
In Ho Chi Minh city, according to doctor Phan Thanh Tam, Deputy Director of the city CDC, each day, 25-30 doctors and technicians conduct the tests around the clock. As of August 10th, the city reported 51,664 people coming from Da Nang with health declarations to 24 districts. Over 47,200 people’s samples have been taken, with 45,390 tested negative for the virus, 6 positive being treated at hospitals. Some 4,000 remaining people’s samples are being taken for tests./.