Focusing on testing for Covid-19 to separate F0 cases in the community

- According to the plan, about 2.1 million people will be taken samples for Covid-19 testing. Specifically, 100% of people in very high-risk and high-risk areas will be taken samples for testing; for the risk area, taking sample 100%, but only representative of the household, and in the "green area", taking sample 20% of the household representative.

* Dear Madam, what is the meaning of the large-scale testing of about 2.1 million people in the province in the "fighting" against Covid-19?

- The epidemic situation in the province is complicated, infection in the community has not been controlled, especially in very high-risk areas. Currently, the province is implementing the social distancing in accordance with Directive No. 16 of the Government, this is the best opportunity, the "golden" time to achieve the goal assigned by the Government to Dong Nai Province to control the epidemic before September 1, 2021. Therefore, the Provincial People's Committee has issued a plan for testing and screening for SARS-CoV-2 throughout the province in order to urgently separate F0 cases in the community, minimizing the risk of spreading the epidemic on a large scale. This is considered a strong solution towards the basic goal of the epidemic control in the area.

* To ensure the testing is carried out as planned while the condition of medical workforce is limited and the workload is quite large, what solutions does Dong Nai Province have, Madam?

- The goal of this test plan is to separate F0 cases in the community, this large-scale testing campaign of the province mobilizes all resources to implement. With the current testing capacity, it is possible to test about 2.1 million people across the province in the next 2 weeks.

Dong Nai Province focuses on testing in key areas, giving priority to very high risk and high risk places. The province mobilizes resources in the area to implement this plan to ensure the conditions of facilities; forces and means of supporting the transportation of patients, quarantined people, and testing samples; human resources to serve quarantined people; ensure the supply of food and foodstuffs; ensure chemical, biological products supplies for testing, etc.

As for health human resources in support of testing, the province assigned the Department of Health to coordinate with the People's Committees of districts and cities to mobilize human resources to take samples for testing from public and private medical facilities, school health services, corporate health; be responsible for allocating and coordinating health human resources from the Ministry of Health, provinces and cities to support Dong Nai Province to the localities participating in the implementation of the plan.

The People's Committees of Provinces and Cities mobilize human resources to support from cadres, civil servants, officials of departments, agencies, mass organizations, socio-political organizations, volunteers to participate and support in taking samples for testing such as: records, data entry, communication, separation and other activities during the implementation of the plan.

* How to handle F0, F1 cases after being separated from this large-scale test, Madam?

- The management of quarantine and medical monitoring of infected people shall be complied under the guidance of the Ministry of Health. Covid-19 patients are treated by stratification model (3-storey tower model). The first floor is for asymptomatic Covid-19 cases. Currently, the province has deployed more than 6,000 beds. Districts/cities continue to implement management and treatment of asymptomatic F0 cases in districts with a minimum of 1,000 beds. Particularly, Bien Hoa City ensures a minimum of 2,000 beds, the total number of beds to be deployed is 12,000 beds. The second floor is for mild and moderate Covid-19 cases, treated at the field hospitals, Dong Nai Dermatology Hospital with a total of 9,410 beds. The third floor treats severe and critical Covid-19 cases (Dong Nai Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Hospital with 60 beds, Long Thanh Regional General Hospital with 250-300 beds, Thong Nhat General Hospital continuing to maintain 70 recovery beds, Dong Nai General Hospital with 50 beds, Long Khanh Regional General Hospital with 40 beds, Dong Nai Children's Hospital with 20 beds, Xuan Loc District Health Center deploying 200-300 beds).

For districts and cities with a high number of F1 cases and overloaded isolation facilities, home isolation is applied. In case of a large number of closely contacted people close in a lockdown area (inns, dormitories, residential areas, etc.), a centralized medical isolation regulation will be applied to that area. If the density of quarantined people is too thick, they are considered to change into other concentrated isolation facilities, etc.

* For the implementation of large-scale Covid-19 testing to ensure order, safety and smoothness, what direction has the province given on this issue?

- The Provincial People's Committee assigns responsibility for implementing the testing plan to each department, branch, People's Committees of districts and cities... and allocates clear and specific tasks. The implementation work must be scientific and accurate, avoiding large gatherings of people at the same time or keeping people waiting for too long; sampling organization must ensure on-time as announcing, order, safety, etc.

The Department of Health is responsible for the overall direction of professional and technical guidance; coordinate testing activities, supply biological products and chemicals for testing; coordinate with departments, agencies, and People's Committees of districts to mobilize and coordinate health human resources throughout the province to take part in taking samples for testing; be responsible for directing, guiding, inspecting and urging the units to deploy the implementation on schedule, ensuring no cross-contamination during the testing process, etc.; The Department of Information and Communications strengthens propaganda to raise people's awareness about large-scale testing to proactively prevent and control the epidemic; The Provincial Military Command, relevant departments and branches mobilize the supporting resources according to the fields in charge.

The People's Committees of districts and cities shall develop detailed plans for the implementation of sampling for testing throughout the area, arrange suitable sample taking locations, and ensure necessary conditions to perform the task; assign forces to guide people to ensure security and order, implement safety regulations on preventing the epidemic, etc.

* Thank you, Madam!

Nhat Huy