From now until 8 September, Da Nang’s medical workers are collecting swab samples from over 71,000 local families whose members have yet to be tested for Covid-19.

Healthcare workers taking samples for Covid-19 testing from selected members of families residing in at Tan Chinh Ward, Thanh Khe District

Each family will select one member aged 18 or above for Covid-19 mass testing. In case anyone tests positive, all their family members will be put under isolation in a designated site and all of them screened separately.

The city’s testing programmes are scaled up in an effort to detect any virus carriers in the community, especially those who appear to show no clinical symptoms, thereby achieving the elimination of the virus in the city.

On Thursday morning, a selected member of each family across the districts of Son Tra, Thanh Khe and Lien Chieu had their swab sampled taken for testing. 

Sample collecting in progress in Nai Hien Dong Ward, Son Tra District

Director of the municipal Health Department Ngo Thi Kim Yen highlighted the significance of such a mass testing in helping detect all new coronavirus cases that might have ‘slipped the net’. The method is one of the fastest and cheapest ways to increase coronavirus testing as it can save time, chemical reagents and money.

Residents waiting their turns to have their samples taken for Covid-19 testing, ensuring 2m-distance from others

“The result will provide a foundation for the city to conduct a comprehensive risk assessment, from which the local authorities could decide to relax social distancing measures. We will try our best to complete the entire mass testing process in less than five days. If it takes us any longer, the initiative will lose its value by failing to provide the city a comprehensive outlook to conduct its next move”, said Yen.

Sampling being conducted in prompt yet effective manner

Currently, the city is home to a total of 276,117 families, of which 51,152 have at least one member to have been tested for the coronavirus, whilst the remaining 224,965 households have yet to be screened for the deadly virus.

Medical workers carefully re-checking the residents’ personal information recorded on their samples

Medical workers wearing personal protective gears with medical gloves during sampling collecting

Da Nang now can conducts 3,000 - 4,000 tests a day. 

After a second wave of Covid-19 infections hit Da Nang late July, the city has been on the right track in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic with its drastic motto of contact tracing - isolating- testing - stamping out virus outbreak.

By TRONG HUY – Translated by A.T