All foreigners are tested for Covid 19 today in 2 days in Da Nang

We got the news 2 days ago passed down by the property owners of the buildings here. Vietnam does a pretty good job of tracking where every foreigner is staying and our landlords were able to pass a message on to us that we were all to report to certain places at certain times for Covid-19 testing. I was a little upset that the time for my part of town was 8am since I tend to work late and stay up even later watching TV or something. But we all made it there on time

The amount of people that were there to get tested was a little disheartening because it is pretty hot outside right now and all of the lining up and testing was done outdoors. It wasn't the most sanitary of places for a blood test and the swab for your throat or nose but they managed and things moved along pretty quickly.

First we were lined up to wait to get a chair, this was just a long line stretching around the block. Thankfully people weren't trying to cut the line at all and things moved pretty slowly. Then in the first seating area we were given a simple form to fill out that included our passport numbers and some simple questions such as "have you felt ill" or "do you know anyone that has caught Covid-19 in Vietnam?" Before leaving this staging area you had your temperature taken. If you were over a certain limit you went to a different line where you would be separated from all the others in the group.

The 2nd staging area is where you had to give a blood sample and again, it was more spaced out chairs that many handlers were maintaining order to insure we all moved as efficiently as possible. They were very transparent about what they were doing, and it was evident that all the needles were new and things were kept very clean and organized. They had also arranged people who speak English, Korean, and Chinese, since these are the languages that most of the expat population speaks. If the only language you speak was not one of these three, you are outta luck!

The last section is where they stuck a long cotton swab into either your nose or on the back of your throat and I have no idea how they choose which they are going to do. I was told they would do my throat but the Canadian who was right behind me in line had them go through the nose. I have no idea why they chose one of the other for each of us.

While it did take more than 2 hours for the entire process I honestly don't think they could have done it any faster without involving a ton more people. There were already probably 50-60 Vietnamese medical staff and helpers on hand, and they managed to test hundreds of us by 11AM. There was another wave that happened in the afternoon, presumably after a lunch break.

Some people were wondering "why did they single out the foreigners?" but these folks were just misinformed. The entire city is being tested but these 2 days were dedicated to the foreigners so that the translators could be brought in and get all the testing done for the 2,200 (thereabouts) of foreign nationals that live in Da Nang.

The best part was that everyone was really friendly and that is always a plus. The fact that none of us had to pay for this was an even bigger bonus. Now we wait 3 days for the results. I believe they will only contact you if you test positive but seeing as how there haven't been any cases for a few days now despite the fact that everyone is getting tested, I think our chances are pretty good that most or all of us will get a negative result.