Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have planned to take 50,000 single samples a day across the southern metropolis for COVID-19 testing in the face of the current outbreak.

The municipal chairman, Nguyen Thanh Phong, directed that the sampling will first be carried out at places related to members of Revival Ekklesia Mission, a Christian congregation based in Go Vap District, where 142 infections have been detected since May 27.

More than 280,000 workers and 3,000 experts in industrial parks, export processing zones, and high-tech zones, will also be tested.

According to Nguyen Tan Binh, director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, the municipal medical sector has prepared enough biological products and test kits, with 90,000 real-time PCR tests and 30,000 rapid tests available.

The city will buy about 200,000 more real-time PCR tests and 100,000 additional rapid tests, Binh added..

Twenty-four central-level health facilities in the city are capable of testing 15,000 single samples in 24 hours, which can be escalated to 30,000-40,000 single samples when necessary.

Binh said that there are now a total of 250 sample collection teams at 22 state-run medical centers and public hospitals across the city.

Both the medical treatment and preventive medicine workforces from the state-run and private health facilities will participate in zoning virus-hit areas, taking samples, and conducting COVID-19 tests, according to the municipal health deputy director Tang Chi Thuong.

Around 400 students from medical universities can also be mobilized into the mass sample collecting drive.

Thuong affirmed that medical staff will be trained in sample taking techniques, packaging and transporting test samples in advance to ensure safety and accuracy.

Medical authorities in Ho Chi Minh City previously collected samples from 62,000 people, of which 157 have been logged as COVID-19 patients as of Monday morning.

The figure is expected to soar in the next few days.

Vietnam’s daily local infections rose by 68 cases at noon on Monday, the health ministry said in a midday update. The agency will give another update at 6:00 pm.

Vietnam has detected 4,164 domestic infections in 34 provinces and cities since April 27, when the fourth wave broke out in the Southeast Asian country, according to the Ministry of Health’s data.

The nation has recorded 7,236 cumulative COVID-19 patients since the virus first emerged on January 23, 2020.

Recoveries have hit 2,950, while 47 virus-related fatalities have been documented so far.

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