Dong Nai Center for Disease Control on the morning of February 4 received a real-time PCR system that can analyzes 1,800 samples per day.

On the morning of February 4, Dong Nai Department of Health started employing a real-time PCR system for COVID-19 testing. Manufactured in Switzerland in 2020, the system is a gift of a local business to the province to improve local COVID-19 testing capacity.

As noted by Dong Nai Center for Disease Control, this PCR system helps handle over 3,000 individual samples and 10,000 group samples a day.

ĐAccording to Dr. Phan Huy Anh Vu, Director of Dong Nai Department of Health, this is a highly scalable and fully automated system, consisting of two main components: automated extraction and real-time analysis. The system is CE-IVD certified and the tests on the Cobas 4800 system all meet requirements of the US and European standards.

In addition to nCoV testing, the system also measures viral load of HIV and hepatitis B/hepatitis C, determines HPV genotypes (which causes cervical cancer), performs predictive genetic testing and tests for other pathogens causing dangerous infectious diseases such as influenza, Zika, SARS, etc.

Dong Nai Department of Health received the system on the morning of February 4 for local Covid-19 prevention. Photo: Phuoc Tuan

Since the COVID-19 outbreak on January 28, Dong Nai has not recorded new infections. Many F1 cases are quarantined and tested negative for the first time.

Over the past 8 days, from January 28 to February 4, the Ministry of Health announced 366 community infections in 10 provinces and cities including Hai Duong (277), Quang Ninh (42), Hanoi (21), Gia Lai (14), Binh Duong (4), Bac Ninh (3), Hoa Binh (2), Ho Chi Minh City (1), Hai Phong (1) and Bac Giang (1).