After Vietnam-based Viet A Corporation successfully produced new Covid-19 test kits, some 20 countries have been in negotiations to buy the biological kits, including Ukraine, Finland, Iran and Malaysia, VnExpress quoted the company’s general director as saying.

Among them, Iran has ordered 4,000 sets of test kit and Ukraine 300, the company's General Director Phan Quoc Viet said.

A made-in-Vietnam biological test kit. Photo: BN

Hanoi’s government has also ordered 200,000 units for local use and for donating to Italy, Viet added.

The test kit, jointly developed by the Military Medical Academy and Viet A Corporation, has been approved by the Ministry of Health for mass production as they provide 100% accurate results after more than one hour of testing.

The kit uses molecular biology techniques (RT-PCR and realtime RT-PCR), manufactured on ISO 13485 standard line and clean room classification of ISO 8.

Vietnam’s real-time RT-PCR has many advantages such as taking less time for testing, while being easier to be used than that of World Health Organization and the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Viet A is able to produce 180,000 tests (1 set has 50 test units) with the current stock of materials and it is importing more to produce another 120,000 sets. Its production capacity could be raised further if it can secure materials, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The research team is conducting training in testing techniques for many domestic facilities such as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Danang and Bac Giang, Hue Central Hospital, Thai Nguyen Central Hospital, Bach Mai Hospital, among others.

As of March 18, the Covid-19 pandemic has spread to 162 countries and territories, leaving 183,738 infections and 7,177 deaths.

Vietnam reported 66 people positive with the coronavirus, of them, sixteen have recovered and been discharged from hospital.

Hanoi now has 16 active coronavirus-infected cases, the largest number in Vietnam. Nearly 2,000 people are in concentrated quarantine in the city.