Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance has mooted that the country begin charging people for costs related to novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) quarantine.

The finance ministry made the proposition to the central government during a regular meeting in Hanoi on Monday.

Aside from charging people for quarantine, the government should also provide assistance for military and healthcare units in charge of battling the COVID-19 epidemic in the past months, the agency stated.

In accordance with current regulations, all Vietnamese citizens do not have to pay for their COVID-19 quarantine and treatment in the Southeast Asian country.

Quarantine expenses are waived for foreigners, but they are required to pay for their COVID-19 treatment at local hospitals.

If people want to spend their isolation period at a hotel rather than a centralized quarantine center, they would be required to pay for all related costs.

At the meeting, the prime minister tasked the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development with coordinating with the Ministry of Health to conduct COVID-19 tests on all imported food of unclear origin.

Authorities in Beijing, China recently discovered that multiple samples of sliced salmon at a local wholesale market were contaminated with the novel coronavirus, while many people at the venue also tested positive for the disease.

Vietnamese researchers have found the novel coronavirus in some wildlife species.

The health ministry on Monday evening confirmed three new COVID-19 patients who previously returned to the country from Kuwait on June 16 and 18.

They had been quarantined upon arrival and are now being treated in Hanoi and the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

Vietnam’s COVID-19 tally is now at 352, with 329 having recovered. No death from the disease has been recorded.

The country has not documented a community infection in the past 70 days.

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