Germany offers test kits to Vietnam

As many as 190,000 test kits were brought to Noi Bai International Airport on June 28 as Covid-19 relief offered by the government of Germany.

Vietnam Airlines starts to transport test kits in Germany. Photo: Vietnam Airlines

The gift, presented by four states of Hamburg, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Sachsen-Anhalt, is the result of a campaign on donating rapid test kits for Vietnam launched by the World University Service (WUS), one among leading partners of the national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines.

Dr. Kambiz Ghawami, WUS president, has largely contributed to the donation, which is estimated to collect a total of one million test kits for Vietnam. Sixteen German states are involving in the campaign.

The test kits are meaningful at the time when Vietnam is racing against time to track community transmission in the most populous metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City.

Daily Covid-19 situation

As of June 28, the country’s total Covid-19 infections surpassed 16,000, including 79% detected in the ongoing outbreak that flared up in late April.

Currently, the pandemic is sweeping 48 out of 63 cities and provinces with the current hardest hit is Ho Chi Minh City with 3,436 confirmed cases.

Bac Giang reported the highest number of infected people (5,663) but it now brings the pandemic under control and on way to resume business operations in industrial parks. As of June 27, the northern province allowed 188 companies with more than 35,300 workers back to work. To prepare manpower for the companies, which are mostly foreign-invested ones, Bac Giang has cooperated with 22 cities and provinces to welcome nearly 21,000 workers to the province.

The southern region, including the economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City, is facing the widespread transmission of SARS-CoV-2, bringing the number of affected cities and provinces to 13, including Binh Duong, the province is known for industrial clusters, including Vietnam-Singapore Industry Parks (VSIPs).

Testing in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: HCDC

Ho Chi Minh City alone has reported triple-digit daily infections for 12 days. The situation has prompted the local government to tighten precautionary measures, including medical surveillance, public pandemic monitoring, and raising people’s awareness of anti-pandemic, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong said at a meeting on June 28.

Accordingly, the city classified its districts into three groups basing on the levels of risk. The particularly high-risk areas cover Binh Tan, Hoc Mon, Binh Chanh, District 8, Tan Phu, and part of Thu Duc City. The high-risk zones include Go Vap, Cu Chi, District 1, Binh Thanh, Tan Binh, District 5, District 4, District 12, and part of Thu Duc City. The less-risk places include Can Gio, District 10, District 11, District 7, and Phu Nhuan.

In addition, the city now has more than 560 places put on lockdown.

Given the rising infections in Ho Chi Minh City, the Ministry of Health has asked the local authorities to pilot home quarantine for first-generation contacts of index cases (F1) to ease the burden of centralized quarantine facilities and limit cross-infection in the quarantined zones, according to Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Truong Son.

Under the ministry’s guidelines, F1 with home quarantine needs to be tested at least five times, which fall on the 1st day, the 7th, the 14th, then the 20th, and the 28th day of the quarantine period.

Vietnam's Covid-19 cases. Source: MoH. Chart: Minh Vu