Danang, Vietnam's Covid-19 epicenter, carries out coronavirus pool testing

Danang city, which is the biggest hot spot of the Covid-19 pandemic in Vietnam, has started pool testing for coronavirus in groups of three to five people in a family to speed up the tracing progress of Covid-19, VnExpress reported.

The media quoted Chairman of the Danang People's Committee Huynh Duc Tho as saying on August 5 that professional agencies had discussed the pool testing method and concluded it is suitable in the current situation.

Health workers gather samples in residential areas on August 3. Photo: Nguyen Dong/VNE

According to Dr. Ton That Thanh, director of the Danang Center for Disease Control (CDC), pool testing consists of combining samples from three to five subjects into one sample and running the test on it. If the sample is positive, then the samples will be tested separately to determine which one is positive. This approach helps screen a large amount of people in a short period of time.

From July 25 to August 3, Danang collected 19,634 samples, of which 13,756 samples were negative for coronavirus and the results of the remainder are to be announced. The city is aiming to test 10,000 samples per day with the participation of the military and the police.

Danang's anti-pandemic strategy during this period is testing, tracing, isolating and stamping out the pandemic. These tasks are being carried out drastically to curb the spread of the virus in the community.

Danang has decided to test its entire population of 1.1 million for coronavirus as the risk of a wider spread increases, the city’s authorities said on August 1.

Up to 207 new cases linked to this beach city have been reported across the country, taking total infections to 672, with eight deaths.

Most of the new cases are linked to hospitals in Danang where the first locally transmitted infection in more than three months was confirmed on July 25.

The Health Ministry said that up to 800,000 visitors have left Danang for other parts of the country since July 1, and more than 41,000 people have visited three infected hospitals in the city.

Vietnam has detected new coronavirus cases in other cities, including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, with links to Danang.