Following the Prime Minister's direction, localities, especially those that are implementing social distancing and stricter preventive measures, have stepped up large-scale COVID-19 testing.
However, the Health Ministry noted that several localities have seen slow progress in the work. Thus, he asked for greater efforts to hasten testing against COVID-19 for local residents in order to detect infections, quarantine infected and suspected cases, seal off affected areas and suppress the outbreak.
According to the dispatch, by September 15, those living in the extremely high-risk and high-risk areas will be tested every 2-3 days while those in other areas will have samples collected every 5-7 days to "filter out" COVID-19 cases from the community.
The People's Committees of the abovementioned provinces and cities are demanded to mobilise the maximum available human resources in collecting samples for COVID-19 screening tests and sets up more mobile teams for COVID-19 testing while providing guidance to residents on conducting COVID-19 self-tests at home by using rapid antigen testing (RAT).
