The Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control (HCDC) said on Monday it will conduct COVID-19 tests on all people who have recently returned from Hanoi, Quang Nam Province, Quang Ngai Province, and Hai Duong Province.

The HCDC has finished screening all citizens who had been to the central city of Da Nang, the country’s largest epicenter at present, from July 1, in an effort to promptly detect COVID-19 cases and control the spread of the disease.

Aside from Da Nang, other localities including Hanoi, the central provinces of Quang Nam and Quang Ngai, and northern Hai Duong Province have recently detected multiple community-based cases, including cases whose sources of infection remain unknown.

To continue curbing the epidemic, the HCDC will quarantine and conduct COVID-19 tests on all people who previously went to these four localities, as well as requiring them to complete a health declaration.

Accordingly, individuals who had close contact with COVID-19 patients, returned from locations where COVID-19 patients live and work, or returned from localities where lockdown and social distancing measures are implemented will be brought to quarantine centers and tested.

Those who went to high-risk locations noted by the Ministry of Health will undergo home quarantine and be sampled for COVID-19 tests.

The remaining people will have their health monitored at home and will be screened for COVID-19 if they exhibit symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, difficulty breathing, and loss of taste and smell.

The HCDC is developing a specific plan for this process and will send it to authorities in the city’s 24 districts for implementation.

According to the municipal Department of Health, a total of 53,317 people in the metropolis had been to Da Nang since July 1, all of whom have completed health declarations and been tested for COVID-19.

Among them, 52,675 have tested negative for the novel coronavirus, while the others are still waiting for their results.

Six people tested positive and have been confirmed as patients No. 510, 517, 518, 567, 568 and 589 by the Ministry of Health.

Vietnam’s COVID-19 tally is at 989, with 525 having recovered and 26 deaths as of Wednesday morning.

Five hundred and nine local infections have been reported since July 25, when the country documented its first community-based case after 99 days.

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