Testing conducted for residents of Hạ Lôi Village, Mê Linh Commune, Mê Linh District. Hà Nội is accelerating the process to cover all locals in Hạ Lôi today. VNA Photo Bùi Cương Quyết

HÀ NỘI — The National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control has asked cities and provinces nationwide to invest wisely in testing systems to avoid unnecessary waste in the current pandemic situation.

In an urgent document sent on Saturday, the steering committee asked local health departments to carefully consider procurement and investment of the equipment to avoid waste because machines and biological products are limited and expensive.

The document stressed that testing is conducted by laboratories under the direction of the steering committee, not as requested services.

So far, the country has had 110 laboratories with full capacity for COVID-19 testing, of which 95 are under the health sector, 15 are under other sectors such as agriculture and national defence.

According to the Ministry of Health, the test method suitable to the prevention and control conditions in Việt Nam is the RT-PCR test with test kits produced by the Military Medical Academy, ensuring the ability of domestic supply, regardless of the supply from the outside. The ministry is appraising and licensing several units that have registered.

Việt Nam is one of the leading countries in the world having people tested in relation to positive cases. Testing capacity reaches 27,000 samples a day. By Sunday morning, the cumulative total of tested samples was 212,800, of which positive samples were 258.— VNS