Vietnam's labor ministry has recently announced it will temporarily stop issuing new work permits to foreigners who come from areas hit by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic, in a bid to prevent the virus spreading, the official Vietnam News Agency reported.

The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs is expected to soon suspend the granting of new work permits to such foreign workers during the time of the epidemic as announced by Vietnam, the state media said.

The ministry also attaches importance to communications work and has asked authorities in each locality to continue reviewing and controlling the number of foreign workers, especially Chinese ones.

Updates from Vietnam’s 63 provinces and cities showed that as of February 20, there were 34,423 Chinese laborers working in Vietnam, of whom 26,904 had been in China for the Lunar New Year holiday in late January.

Those who returned to Vietnam after the holiday have been quarantined for 14 days before they are allowed to resume work, while many others have been asked to stay in China until the epidemic is over.

The COVID-19 has killed 2,702 people and infected over 80,100 globally since it first hit the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, according to the South China Morning Post.

Vietnam has so far confirmed 16 cases of the viral infection, including 13 Vietnamese, one Vietnamese American, and two Chinese.

All of them have fully recovered and 15 have been discharged from the hospital as of Tuesday. The other patient remains hospitalized but is eligible for release after testing negative for the virus several times.

The country has recorded no new infection since February 13.

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