Vietnamese COVID-19 testing capacity sees remarkable improvement

Vietnam’s COVID-19 testing capacity has been significantly improved, with several laboratories across the country capable of handling up to 100,000 samples per day, according to figures given by representatives from the Ministry of Health (MoH).

This confirmation was made by Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan during an online meeting held on May 13 alongside the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, the Pasteur Institute, and other testing units.

The nation has enough testing techniques including Realtime RT-PCR, rapid antigen test, and rapid antibody test in order to detect and diagnose cases of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The Ministry of Health (MoH) has also moved to release guidelines relating to each type of testing and different scenarios, especially the scenario of 30,000 infected cases detected in the nation, Deputy Minister Thuan added.

The MoH representative emphasised that the MoH will continue to ramp up the dissemination to raise public awareness regarding the significance of SARS-CoV-2 testing as part of COVID-19 prevention activities.

Nguyen Minh Hang, deputy director of the General Department of Preventive Medicine, revealed that rapid antigen testing will serve as a means of strengthening surveillance over the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, with this being also regarded as an aid to the results of RealTime RT- PCR.

These techniques have been competently implemented by the MoH in order to support laboratories nationwide to improve their testing capacity, Hang affirmed.

Furthermore, Hang outlined that 175 laboratories throughout the country are capable of performing SARS-CoV-2 testing, adding that compared to previous waves of the epidemic, the overall testing capacity has enjoyed a rapid increase, with the country carrying out approximately 310,000 test samples as of April 27.

At present, there are three types of biological products which are used as part of testing techniques, while there are 16 types of biological products for RealTime RT-PCR test, four types of biological products for the rapid antigen test, and nine types for the antibody test.

These are the biological products licensed for circulation by the MoH. In addition, Vietnam has also used biological products recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) or the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC).