The ministry is responsible for announcing the list of establishments eligible for COVID-19 testing and coordinating with the Ministry of Finance to decide test prices.

Viet Nam’s testing capacity has ramped up quickly from just two testing sites nationwide in late January this year to 120 by May.

Last April, the Ministry of Health said Viet Nam was one of the leading countries in the world with highest proportion of COVID-19 tests in relation to positive cases.

The nation’s daily testing capacity reaches 27,000 samples and the total tested samples rose to 212,800 as of April 12, the ministry added.

The country’s patient tally soared to 1,009 as of 6:10 pm on August 21 since emergence of the COVID-19 outbreak in the central city of Da Nang on July 25.

The total includes 545 recovered cases and and 25 deaths./.