The central city of Da Nang has accelerated testing for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) with the Da Nang Centre for Disease Control taking approximately 5,000 samples per day.

As of the morning of August 10 the Da Nang Centre for Disease Control (CDC) had conducted over 39,700 test samples, successfully detecting 269 positive cases of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the process.

This comes after Da Nang CDC started to carry out pooled testing from August 7, with samples taken from oropharyngeal fluid from three to five people in a family before being put in a separate test tube for testing.

This new method is being conducted in an effort to swiftly zone off any affected areas, track down suspected cases in a quick manner, increasing the testing capacity within the community, while also reducing the time it takes to trace positive cases.

With regard to the effectiveness of this latest testing technique, Dr. Le Thanh Chung, Deputy Director of CDC Da Nang, stated that the new method is highly beneficial as it saves on the number of test kits or other biological products being used while also accelerating the overall testing speed. 

At present, CDC Da Nang has successfully collected more than 15,000 samples in the form of pooled testing, with the majority of samples coming  from people who are at a high risk of infection.

The centre now has 13 real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction machines in addition to over 460 medical workers. Of the medical staff, several experts from the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology have been dispatched to the centre in an effort support the analysis of test samples in a timely and accurate way.

Local authorities will provide the optimal conditions possible for the centre to improve operational efficiency, especially when conducing COVID-19 tests in order to prevent the further spread of the virus among the wider community.