Deputy Minister of Health Nguyễn Trường Sơn (middle) examines the newly set up SARS-CoV-2 detection laboratory at the Đà Nẵng C Hospital provided with assistance from the Pasteur Institute in HCM City. Photo Ministry of Health

HCM CITY — The Pasteur Institute in HCM City has helped Hospital 199 of the Ministry of Public Security and the Đà Nẵng C Hospital in Đà Nẵng City, the epicentre of the new outbreak, to set up two laboratories that conduct tests to detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The two laboratories that meet the national standard were set up and run within one week as hospitals were struggling to meet surging demand for tests, said Hoàng Quốc Cường, deputy head of the Pasteur Institute.

Under the Ministry of Health’s request, the Pasteur Institute has dispatched a medical team to assist the two hospitals to develop infrastructure and provide training on technical procedures and criteria for confirmation of positive results with PCR tests.

The institute also sent essential equipment and machines, and testing materials to the laboratories from HCM City to Đà Nẵng.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyễn Trường Sơn conducted an examination of the two laboratories, which are certified for performing tests to detect SARS-CoV-2.

The Đà Nẵng C Hospital last Saturday (August 15) opened its SARS-CoV-2 detection laboratory which will help ease the overload of testing at the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Đà Nẵng.

Đà Nẵng has six medical establishments that are certified for SARS-CoV-2 detection testing under the criteria issued by the Ministry of Health, with combined capacity of more than 15,000 tests a day. — VNS