​People when going to take samples for community testing should bring a smartphone with Bluezone installed and complete health declaration.

At the site of taking samples for testing, people open Bluezone to present the QR code for medical staff to scan the code. Scanning the QR code on the Bluezone app reduces the waiting time by 50% when taking samples for testing.

Mr. Le Tuan Anh - Director of the Department of Information and Communications said that according to the previous process, people before being sampled would fill in a pre-printed form for medical staff to enter information from that paper into an Excel file. In the condition of using protective gear and gloves, data entry is very difficult and slow, the data entered into the Excel file is difficult to statistics because it is not linked to other systems, not to mention each place can enter different data. Meanwhile, the information people fill out on paper may be lacking and inaccurate, when entering data into the computer, medical staff reading people's handwriting are also prone to errors, affecting the return of test results, causing difficulties in localizing and tracing.

To limit errors and shorten sampling time, the Department of Information and Communications has deployed a Covid-19 test management and sampling platform in the province through the Bluezone app. With this method, people only need to connect to the Internet and make a health declaration on the Bluezone app (people without smartphones can also declare using their relative's phones), the sampling staff only need to scan the QR code to push the data to the system instead of having to manually enter data into the Excel file, making sampling faster, more accurate and shortening the sampling process compared to manual methods; the automatic data entry process will also minimize contact and reduce the possibility of infection.

In order to widely deploy the app, the Department has asked the People's Committees of districts, towns and cities to direct the sampling units in the area to guide the sampled people to fill out the information form, and at the same time guide the installation and health declaration on Bluezone app (if using a smartphone) before going to the sampling site for PCR test (not applying to the case of rapid test sampling). In addition, instructing sampling units and sampling teams to prepare an Internet connection to facilitate sampling. The Department has also coordinated with the National Technology Center for pandemic prevention and control to ensure that the Bluezone app operates continuously and effectively.

  Reported by Mai Xuan - Translated by Nguyen Trang