As per recent request of the Da Nang People's Committee, a mass COVID-19 testing drive applied to a large number of locals, including those working in industrial parks citywide, will be conducted from August 16 - 18 and August 19 – 21.

The ‘one door-one test’ campaign is in progress in Son Tra District. Photo: DAC MANH

The move aims to spot and isolating positive cases from the community as soon as possible, thus urgently zoning and accurately assessing the level of infection risk in each district, ward, commune, hamlet, and residential group for more appropriate pandemic prevention and control measures in the coming time.

Amongst the subjects to be tested for the coronavirus are all employees working at enterprises located in industrial parks which are applying the so-called ‘3- on- the- spot” (on-site production, on-site dining, on-site rest) approach, and about 39,556 locals residing in locked-down areas.

The Authority of the Da Nang Hi-Tech Park and Industrial Zone and the district -level People's Committees must direct all enterprises to organise the testing, either by rapid SARS-CoV-2 antigen testing or the real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique, for all employees being present at work every 3 days.

All testing costs shall be borne by the businesses.

In addition, 219,749 locals living in the remaining parts of the city will be subject to COVID-19 testing through the ‘one door-one test’ campaign.

Simply put, the only one representative of each local family will test for the virus, who is placed at the highest risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the household and is aged over18 years old.

Besides, tests will be conducted onto those who are participating in activities related to pandemic prevention and control, including funtional forces monitoring, inspecting and supplying essential goods, and doing environmental sanitation.

Medical staff from some medical establishments and testing agencies will join the conduction of the upcoming large-scale testing  drive. Included are the Da Nang Centre for Disease Control (CDC), Da Nang General Hospital, Lung Hospital, Vinmec Da Nang International Hospital, Da Nang C Hospital, Hospital 199 under the Ministry of Public Security, Hoan My Hospital, Family Hospital andThien Nhan High-Tech Medical Diagnostic Centre.

It is known that the total capacity of testing for SARS-CoV-2 by the Realtime RT-PCR method at medical facilities in Da Nang is currently 9,500-10,000 pooled samples/day (equivalent to a total of 95,000 - 100,000 people/day).

Anyone who has displayed cough, fever, sore throat, shortness of breath, fatigue, body aches, decreased or lost taste, smell or pneumonia over the past 14 days but have not had their swab samples taken for COVID-19 testing, must be guided by relevant local units to medical examination and treatment facilities for the sampling immediately.

Reporting by DAC MANH – Translating by A.T