Hanoi Runs Out Of Rapid COVID-19 Test Kits, Asks Residents To Monitor Symptoms - Official

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th August, 2020) The Vietnamese capital of Hanoi has run out of rapid test systems for detecting COVID-19, with the city authorities asking residents to independently monitor symptoms of the disease, Nguyen Khac Hien, the head of the capital's Health Department, said.

"The number of people screened exceeded our expectations. We recommend that people should monitor their own health, and if one has symptoms like coughing, fever or breathing difficulty, they must go to medical facilities," Hien said on Monday, as quoted by the VN Express newspaper, adding that the rapid testing kits had run out earlier in the afternoon.

According to the official, since July 8, the city has screened more than 88,000 people returning from the resort city of Da Nang, where a new infectious cluster was recently discovered, with rapid tests having been used to detect the virus in over 70,000 people.

Due to the lack of rapid test kits, about 18,000 people were not tested for the virus, Hien added.

Until a new cluster of infections was detected in Da Nang last week, Vietnam had no recorded deaths from COVID-19 and almost three months of no domestic transmission. After discovering the new hotbed of infection, the Vietnamese government reimposed strict control measures and locked down several regions deemed high risk. Since late July, the country has recorded 205 cases of the coronavirus, with most of them being linked to the currently quarantined Da Nang Hospital.

The overall number of cases in Vietnam has reached so far 652, including 374 recoveries and seven deaths, with six fatalities being reported last week and the seventh on Tuesday.