Director of the Da Nang Centre for Disease Control (CDC) Ton That Thanh said on Monday that his centre used around 1.4 billion VND of the city government’s grant to purchase a medical equipment to carry out real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests to detect the novel coronavirus in March.

The Real-time PCR machine (right) in the CDC Da Nang lab

The machine called AriaMx Real-Time PCR is manufactured by the USA’s Agilent Technologies, Inc in Malaysia.

Director Thanh remarked the conducting of coronavirus tests involve three main devices: a Real-time PCR machine, an automatic sample divider and automatic DNA/RNA extraction machine.

In fact, in 2015, CDC Da Nang (previously known as the Preventive Medicine Centre) already bought a RT- PCR machine for detection and diagnosis of dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis, and hand, foot and mouth virus.

However, the automatic sample divider and automatic DNA/RNA extraction machine were not available at that time. Since 2015, the RT- PCR machine has been damaged and repaired many times.

After being allowed to conduct coronavirus tests by the Vietnamese Ministry of Health on 6 March, the CDC Da Nang purchased a new RT- PCR machine funded by the city budget to meet rising demand for Covid-19 screening in the city after getting approval from the municipal government.

Since 7 March, CDC lab has conducted more than 5,000 tests for suspected coronavirus cases, and close contacts of infected patients.

By PHAN CHUNG - Translated by MAI DUNG