HCMC – Danang authorities will conduct Covid-19 tests on some 200,000 households to enhance the city’s disease control efforts and gradually ease social distancing measures.

Over the past two days, the local police visited many houses in the city to make a list of households, which have yet to be tested for Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, in line with the directive of the Danang Steering Committee for Covid-19 Infection Prevention and Control. Each household will choose one member as a representative to have his/her sample taken for testing. If he/she tests positive for the virus, the household will be quarantined, VnExpress news site reported. The plan to test each representative from these households in the city is aimed at tracing all those who were in contact with Covid-19 patients, stated Ngo Thi Kim Yen, director of the municipal Department of Health. The Covid-19 testing plan is expected to help Danang City conduct a comprehensive assessment of the risk of the disease, she said, adding that based on the results, the municipal government will decide whether to relax social distancing in the time to come. The city is home to some 220,000 households. Over the past few months, many quarantined medical workers and households or those who were in close contact with Covid-19 patients were tested for the disease. Families whose members have recently undergone a Covid-19 test will not be subject to this plan. On August 31 and today, September 1, the healthcare sector conducted tests on 14,000 students, teachers and education workers involved in the national high school examination. Medical workers will start taking samples from households in the city’s districts from September 3, Yen said, adding that the job is expected to be completed within five days.