Nghe An has tested suspected Covid-19 cases

Speaking to Nghe An Newspaper reporters, Dr. Nguyen Van Dinh - Director of Nghe An Center for Disease Control (CDC) said that the unit has just conducted Covid-19 tests for 3 cases in the area. These are the first cases that Nghe An has tested on its own.

This test was conducted after Nghe An received the Realtime PCR machine from the Ministry of Health. "In the short term, we can test 25-30 cases for Covid-19 every day. This is a screening test, if there is a positive result, it will be sent to the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology for retesting to confirm," said Mr. Dinh.

Medical staff take samples of suspected cases for testing. Photo: VnE

As of the evening of March 29, Nghe An had collected samples from 368 people to send to the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology for Covid-19 testing. However, due to the large demand for testing, more than 200 samples sent by Nghe An have yet to receive results.

At an online conference held on March 29, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said that currently in Vietnam, there are 24 laboratories that have the right to confirm positive cases. The remaining provinces and cities can test and send these 24 laboratories positive test samples for confirmation.

In addition, Vietnam has imported 200,000 rapid tests to prioritize testing in centralized quarantine areas (currently 37,000 people), people quarantined at home, and people returning from Bach Mai Hospital to localities. Rapid tests are effective after 7 days from the time of contact with the patient/pathogen. "We do not lack diagnostic biological products, so we need to expand testing, zoning, isolation, epidemic suppression and treatment. This is our new strategy in the current period," said the Deputy Minister of Health.

As of the evening of March 29, Nghe An province is quarantining and monitoring more than 5,100 people to prevent the Covid-19 epidemic. Of these, more than 4,200 people are quarantined centrally at the provincial level.