HCM City requires returnees from localities with COVID-19 patients in Hai Phong City and Binh Duong Province to quarantine for 14 days.

Anyone returning from Le Hong Phong Street in Dang Giang Ward in Ngo Quyen District in Hai Phong, and road D35 in the Vietnam-Singapore residential area in An Phu Ward in Thuan An City in Binh Duong will be supervised by HCDC and tested for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Both localities are connected to two COVID-19 patients, the Ministry of Health said on March 26.

The two patients illegally entered the country from Cambodia via Phu Quoc Island in the southern province of Kien Giang, and then flew to Hanoi on Vietjet flight VJ458 before travelling to Hai Phong in a private car.

Another patient from Binh Duong went to the Moc Bai border gate in Tay Ninh Province to purchase goods a few days ago.

Meanwhile, a patient in HCM City who travelled with the two patients in Hai Phong is under quarantine at Cu Chi field hospital.

HCDC said two sites in connection with the positive case have been locked down in HCM City, including the Quoc Thai Hotel in Binh Chanh District and alley no 102 on Le Van Tho Street in Go Vap District.

Further contact tracing is ongoing and eight of her direct contacts (F1) and 23 contacts of the F1 cases have tested negative for the virus.

According to HCDC, authorities have discovered that four people who illegally entered Vietnam on a fishing vessel from Cambodia on March 22 had accompanied the three previously confirmed patients.

One of them had stayed at a hostel in Go Vap District and two others at a hotel in District 1 in HCM City, and another in Hanoi.

All of them have tested negative for the virus.

HCM City and Phu Quoc Island City are seeking three other people who were on the vessel.

Phu Quoc authorities are conducting contact tracing involving the three COVID-19 patients, and 26 of their direct contacts have been found.

The city said that anyone who was at the venues related to COVID-19 patients should contact local health agencies for support.

Nguyen Luu Trung, vice chairman of the Kien Giang Province’s People’s Committee, said that because of the situation in Cambodia, the number of Vietnamese returnees via official and illegal entry is expected to increase in the upcoming time.

He asked border guards to work closely with the coast guard and naval force to review and rearrange checkpoints at sea, and use more patrols to prevent people from illegally entering Vietnam.  

VNS

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