Vietnam records 10 new COVID-19 cases on December 28

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam reported 10 more COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours to 6pm on December 28, including one who illegal entered the country via small trails, according to the National Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

Patents No. 1,442-1,450 returned home from Russia on the flight VN5062, which landed in the Cam Ranh International Airport in the central province of Khanh Hoa on December 25.  They are now being quarantined and treated at the Khanh Hoa provincial Hospital for Tropical Diseases and a general clinic in Ninh Sim – Ninh Hoa area.

The latest case, Patient No.1,451, whose registered residence was in Su Van Hanh apartment building in District 5, illegally entered Vietnam on the early morning of December 24 to avoid the 14-day mandatory quarantine.

The apartment building has been under lockdown and tenants are asked not to leave their apartments, while local police officers have been deployed to guard the place.

Thirteen close contacts of the man, including his girlfriend, a motorbike taxi driver, and those who joined him at a restaurant and a karaoke parlour, were placed under concentrated quarantine and got tested.

Forty-eight second-hand contacts – those who have come into contact with the above 13 – were also asked to self-quarantine at home.

Upon illegally entering Vietnam at Long Binh border gate, An Phu district, An Giang province, the two COVID-19 patients, in addition to three other Vietnamese citizens, hired a seven-seat car to return across the southern region.

An Giang province has identified the driver on December 28, a 30-year-old man named M.V.T, residing in Vinh Loc commune, An Phu district.

According to local authorities, after transporting the group entering Vietnam illegally, the driver failed to disinfect his car and went on to transport a number of teachers and officials of Vinh Loc commune to be treated in hospitals in HCM City.

Eight of them had to be quarantined.

Another woman on the same ride is currently being quarantined at Sa Dec Hospital in Dong Thap province, while three others in the illegal entry case remain unaccounted for.

Further epidemiological investigation is ongoing to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the community.

So far, all direct contacts of Patient No.1,440 have been negative for the novel coronavirus in their first test.

The latest cases pushed the country's total infections to 1,451, with 35 deaths and 1,318 recoveries after 15 patients were given the all-clear on December 28.

There are 17,016 people having close contacts with COVID-19 patients and returning from pandemic-hit areas under quarantine./.