Traveling dozens of kilometers at night to trace and collect Covid-19 samples in a border district of Nghe An

The first F0 case is LTQ, female, born in 1982, hometown in Lang Khe commune, Con Cuong. The patient is a teacher at Xang Tren Kindergarten, My Ly commune, Ky Son district. The patient had contact with QTĐ (Con Cuong) announced on December 10. The patient has symptoms: cough, runny nose, sore throat. The second F0 case is LTT, female, born in 1980. Hometown in Lang Khe commune, Con Cuong district. The patient is a teacher at Keng Du Kindergarten, Ky Son. The patient had contact with QTĐ (Con Cuong) announced on December 10. The patient has symptoms: cough, runny nose, sore throat.

Immediately after receiving notification from the provincial CDC, the district's frontline forces quickly deployed to the communes to conduct sampling and tracing work.

Road to Huoi Phuon 2 village, Keng Du to collect samples. Photo: Tinh Duong

At the first sampling point in Xang Tren village, My Ly commune - where F0 appeared, teacher LTQ, with a distance of about 64 km from the district medical center to here. Although it was late at night, immediately after receiving the notice, 10 staff of the district medical center rode motorbikes, in the cold of the border mountains and forests, carrying biological products to collect samples. By 8:00 a.m. the same day, the sampling team had collected 116 samples of related F1s to send to the provincial CDC for testing.

Health center staff conduct sampling at a resident's house. Photo: Tinh Duong

Arriving at Keng Du commune at 1:00 a.m., after traveling more than 80 km from the District Medical Center, carrying biological products and equipment to support sampling, Dr. Sam Van Hai - Director of the Medical Center and the center's staff immediately started sampling. By 9:00 a.m. on December 11, the sampling of 192 F1 was completed, and the biological samples were now sent to the provincial CDC for testing.

The District Health Center's sample collection team went to Xang Tren village, My Ly commune to collect samples. Photo: Tinh Duong

Sampling work for students in Xang Tren village, My Ly commune. Photo: Tinh Duong

“The difficulty in collecting samples for testing in Ky Son is that the distance from the District Health Center to the communes is very far, and traffic is difficult because of the steep and winding roads. During the day, it only takes about 2.5 hours to get there, but at night, due to fog, it takes more than 4 hours to get to Keng Du to collect samples. The F0 case is a kindergarten teacher, so there are many F1 cases that are young children. We have to wait until morning to go to their homes to collect samples,” said Dr. Sam Van Hai.

Although we know that the anti-epidemic work of the frontline forces is extremely difficult, it is even more difficult for mountainous districts like Ky Son. "The Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control of Ky Son District highly appreciates the participation of the frontline forces and shares the difficulties of the medical team in sampling and tracing. The district will concentrate all forces to quickly control the epidemic, not letting the disease break out" - Mr. Ly Ba Thai - Standing Deputy Secretary of the District Party Committee, Deputy Head of the Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control of Ky Son District, affirmed./.