Japan continues assistance to Vietnam in fighting COVID-19

• JICA supports food value chain development in Vietnam
• JICA project supports Vietnam in implementation of the Paris Agreement

As a countermeasure against COVID-19 in Vietnam, responding to the request of the National Hospital of Tropical Disease (NHTD), JICA decided to provide NHTD testing equipments including an automatic PCR system, worth totally 60 million yen (roughly 13 billion VND). The first batch of the assistance package was handed over to NHTDon November 25th, 2020.

Ms. IWAMA Nozomi, Senior  Representative of JICA Vietnam Office (in the middle left, next to the system) presented Automatic PCR system Cobas 6800 to Dr. Pham Ngoc Thach, Director of NHTD (in the middle right, next to the system) with the witness of representatives of Ministry of Health and Embassy of Japan to Vietnam.

JICA operates a Technical Cooperation project with NHTD – the leading hospital responsible for the infectious disease diagnosis and treatment in the Northern region of Vietnam, through the Project for “Establishment of the “bench-to-bedside” feedback system for sustainable art and prevention of new HIV tranmission in Vietnam” with the aim of controlling the spread of HIV in Vietnam. 

Automatic PCR system Cobas 6800.

The project is to build a mechanism for centralized monitoring of the HIV treatment at regional hospitals, researching and developing the immune mechanism of HIV virus infection.

This assistance package for NHTD is expected to further strengthen the project’s HIV testing capacity and the hospital’s PCR testing capacity in dealing with COVID-19.

In combating with COVID-19, NHTD is responsible for the front-line treatment of COVID-19 patients, including critical cases, also, is in charge of  the isolation and PCR tests to the suspected and confirmed cases. This support is expected to speed up PCR tests and reduce the burden on NHTD.