HCMC – Among 111 labs qualified to test for Covid-19 in Vietnam, 39 have a maximum combined testing capacity of 13,000 samples per day, heard attendees at a meeting on Covid-19 infection prevention and control today, April 20.
Specifically, these 39 labs are located at 22 national medical centers and hospitals, 14 centers for disease control and prevention and three other facilities, reported Tuoi Tre newspaper.
In addition, the World Health Organization has offered some 10,000 Covid-19 test kits to Vietnam and will consider providing another 40,000 made-in-Germany test kits using the Realtime RT-PCR technique.
Viet A Company has also provided local labs with over 70,000 kits for the new coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2, and is scheduled to manufacture and deliver another batch of 100,000 test kits.
Further, health care facilities nationwide have received 40 Covid-19 testing machines and 30,000 test kits from the Health Ministry.
The labs conducting Covid-19 testing have proactively purchased medical equipment from suppliers at home and abroad.
As of this afternoon, the country has reported no new cases of Covid-19 for four consecutive days. Its total infections remain at 268, with 207 cases having recovered. A decline in the number of new infections has been recorded since social distancing measures took effect early this month.
More than 232,000 people had completed their mandatory quarantine period by April 19, according to data from the Ministry of National Defense’s Search and Rescue Operations Department.
Military-run units have set up 150 facilities to receive and place in quarantine over 4,500 people returning to Vietnam from overseas to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Over 28,800 people are under medical surveillance in other quarantine centers across the country.
