Nghe An calls on units and localities to proactively conduct rapid Covid-19 testing for at-risk subjects

On August 20, the People's Committee of Nghe An province issued a document on proactively conducting rapid Covid-19 antigen tests to screen high-risk individuals and areas. This urgent document was sent to provincial departments, branches, districts, cities, towns, the Southeast Economic Zone Management Board and agencies and units located in the province.

The document stated that recently, the Covid-19 epidemic situation in Nghe An province has been extremely complicated, with many cases appearing in the community. The Provincial People's Committee has decided to isolate society according to Directive 16 for 14 districts, cities and towns and to distance society according to Directive 15 for the remaining 7 districts. The purpose of isolation is to absolutely prevent the risk of widespread infection and quickly trace F0s in the community.

Nghe An is overloaded with resources and equipment for Covid-19 testing. Photo: TH

Currently, the Provincial People's Committee has directed the health sector to focus on taking RT-PCR samples for high-risk subjects. However, the resources to perform this test are facing many difficulties, with overloaded human resources and equipment. With the goal of quickly isolating and suppressing the epidemic, the Provincial People's Committee encourages units and localities to use local resources and organize rapid Covid-19 antigen testing for high-risk subjects and areas, industrial parks, factories, enterprises, etc.

Nghe An Provincial People's Committee requests units and localities to organize and conduct screening tests for the above subjects and areas before August 26. If there are suspicious results during the testing process, immediately report to the district health center where the patient resides or works and to the Provincial Center for Disease Control via email address.[email protected].

According to the reporter's investigation, Nghe An province currently collects about 4,000 - 7,000 samples for RT-PCR testing every day. At its peak, on August 19, nearly 8,500 samples were collected for testing. This was also the day the largest number of Covid-19 infections were detected to date, with 61 cases.