On Sunday, Da Nang medical staff collected a throat and nasal swab of more than 2,470 people in the recently-sealed off Fhome Da Nang apartment complex on Ly Thuong Kiet Street and its surrounding areas, the Da Nang Administrative Centre on Tran Phu Street, stall holders at the already-closed Hoa Khanh Nam traditional market, and those living on Ngo Xuan Thu Street, Hoa Hiep Bac Ward, Lien Chieu District, to test for COVID-19.

Medical staff taking a thoat and nasal swab of employees working at the Da Nang Administrative Center on Sunday morning. Photo: XUAN DUNG

These places have been linked to recently-confirmed cases, according their travel and contact history released by the municipal Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

In detail, on Sunday morning, Hai Chau District-based Fhome Da Nang apartment complex was put under lockdown over its links to a COVID-19 infected man.

Hai Chau District People's Committee Vice Chairman Nguyen Minh Huy said, according to initial statistics, this apartment building now houses about 700 people, of whom nearly 500 are Vietnamese nationals and the rest are foreigners.

It was reported that 2 close contacts of the infected man have been identified in this apartment complex and sent to designated quarantine facilities.

The FHome Da Nang apartment complex was put under lockdown on Saturday evening. Photo: XUAN DUNG

On Sunday afternoon, a total of 700 residents living in this apartment complex and those living nearby had their swab samples taken for COVID-19 testing.

Meanwhile, staff from the Hai Chau District Medical Centre and the Da Nang Cancer Hospital conduct COVID-19 testing on close to 1,400 cadres, civil servants, public employees and workers at the municipal Administrative Centre.

In a similar move, the Lien Chieu District Medical Centre took a throat and nasal swab for tests from over 300 residents living on/ near Ngo Xuan Thu Street in Hoa Hiep Bac Ward, four of them are contacts of a positive case.

On the same day, the sampling was conducted on a total of 74 stall holders and vendors at the Hoa Khanh Nam traditional market which is till closed over its links to a COVID-19 patient.

Residents living on/ near Ngo Xuan Thu Street in Hoa Hiep Bac Ward have their throat and nose swabs taken for COVID-19 testing on Sunday. Photo: TRONG HUNG

All the tested people were required to strictly comply with the city's measures to control COVID-19, including making health declarations, wearing facemasks, disinfecting their hands, keeping a distance from others, and joining the queue whilst waiting for their turns to have their swabs taken.

In addition, they were asked to stay at home pending their test results which are expected to be released tomorrow, May 10.

The collection of a throat and nasal swab is conducted on a female stall holder at the Hoa Khanh Nam traditional market

The group testing method will be applied using Realtime RT-PCR technique. Testing samples from many people at once, this method is the fastest and cheapest way to increase novel coronavirus screening as it can save time, chemical reagents and money. Placing swabs from multiple individuals in a single test gets more people diagnosed using fewer supplies.

For more explanations, instead of testing one person at a time, samples from multiple individuals would be mixed together, and tested as one. If the test comes back negative, everyone in the pool is clear. If positive, each member of the pool is then tested individually-thus cutting down on the total number of tests.

However, suspected cases or close contacts of COVID-19 cases are still individually tested for the most straightforward results.

Reporting by TRONG HUNG, XUAN DUNG – Translating by A.T