Viet Nam reported no new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, according to Viet Nam's National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control figures released at  6.00am on 11 September.

A health worker gets a testing sample (Photo: VNA).

The country has documented 1,059 SARS-CoV-2 infections to date. Of the total, 691 were locally transmitted, including 551 linked with Da Nang since a second wave of coronavirus infections hit the city on 25 July.

On Thursday, 3 more patients have recovered from their illness. Two of them were discharged from the Da Nang Lung Hospital, whilst the other was released from the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Dong Anh, Ha Noi.

Till date, 893 patients have recovered while 35 died from complications related to the disease. Most of the fatalities were the elderly with serious underlying health conditions.

Among 166 still under treatment, 19 have tested negative for the virus once, 15 others twice and 22 thrice. Currently, four patients are in critical conditions.

There are 35,799 people having close contact with confirmed cases or coming from pandemic-hit regions under quarantine at present, including 603 in hospitals, 16,432 in other quarantine sites and 18,765 at home.

Covid-19 tests at airports

The Ministry of Health plans to order enterprises to conduct Covid-19 tests at airports, said Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long.

He made the statement at a meeting of the Standing National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control on Wednesday in Ha Noi, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Cong Tac said up to now, domestic enterprises have produced two types of Covid-19 fast test kits. The kits have high sensitivity and specificity in people infected with SARS-CoV-2 after seven days.

In addition, Viet Nam has also produced antigen test kits with the realtime-PCR method, with high accuracy and early detection of people infected with SARS-CoV-2. However, the kits take a long time to get results and must be used by skilled technicians, he said.

The steering committee emphasised that the country must live safely with the pandemic and welcome experts and investors to serve economic development, so rapid testing at border gates, airports, hospitals and mass gathering events to detect cases was of utmost importance.

In that spirit, businesses such as Sao Thai Duong and Medicon are researching and producing fast test kits with low cost that can use existing machines and equipment. The kits will have shorter implementation time but sensitivity and specificity will be equal to or even higher than the current realtime-PCR method.

Mr Dao Dinh Khoi, director of the Medicon Company, pledged to focus on manufacturing Covid-19 fast test kits.

The enterprise has prepared raw materials to produce 500,000 test kits. After completing a trial, it will submit for a circulation registration application and be ready to deploy production on an industrial scale with about 50,000-100,000 kits per day. Initially, the tests are expected to cost about US$3.5 each, 70 per cent of the value of foreign products.

A representative from Sao Thai Duong Company said the enterprise, along with researchers, developed the new version of the Realtime LAMP test kit and had sent it to the authorities to assess sensitivity and specificity.

The research team of the company expects the new product to increase testing capacity greatly and that it will return results quickly.

Acting Minister Long acknowledged and highly appreciated the efforts of medical bio-manufacturing enterprises over the past time and said the test kits have made an important contribution to pandemic prevention and control, adding that the ministry would support the firms in their efforts.

Source: VNA/VNS/ DA NANG Today