Hundreds of people in Hanoi crowded the National Institute for Control of Vaccine and Biologicals (NICVB), under the Ministry of Health, to undergo COVID-19 tests on Wednesday, causing a high risk of transmission.

Hanoi residents’ demand for COVID-19 testing has spiked as many localities have required arrivals from the capital to exhibit a coronavirus-free certificate, which is valid for only three days.

The prevailing citywide prohibition of gatherings of over five and a requirement to keep a two-meter distance among each other outside office spaces, schools, and hospitals could not prevent the chaos at the Hoang Mai District-based NICVB on Wednesday morning.

“It’s so crowded today that I’m a bit worried, but I have no choice because I need this for my job,” said Le Dinh Khanh, a cargo driver from Chuong My District, who has to take COVID-19 tests every three days to travel between provinces.

As the crowd overloaded the NICVB’s daily capacity of 650 real-time PCR tests and 300 rapid antigen tests, the institute stopped receiving test-takers at 10:00 am on the same day, only three hours after opening.

“No one gave us any guidance,” complained a person in the crowd.

“It was only when we saw that the institute was closed and wasn’t accepting any more people for testing that we started to disperse. 

"I had already been in line for two hours.”

It is expected that the NICVB will remain closed until local authorities come up with a solution to avoid large gatherings, according to Hoang Thi Thuy, chief of the office of Hoang Mai District People’s Committee.

The Ministry of Health on Thursday morning confirmed 2,967 new COVID-19 cases, including 2,965 domestic cases. The new cases have taken the country’s tally to 71,144, including 11,971 recoveries, as recorded since early 2020.

Of the latest cases, two were detected in Hanoi while 2,433 infections were logged in Ho Chi Minh City, which has recently led the country in daily new infections, with thousands of patients confirmed per day.

Since April 27, when the pandemic’s fourth wave appeared in Vietnam, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have accounted for over 760 and 43,700 cases, respectively, in the country’s total of 67,473 domestic infections.

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