Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc assigned relevant ministries to prepare procedures to soon bring home 112 Vietnamese workers in Equatorial Guinea who are sickened by novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as he addressed a meeting on COVID-19 on Friday.

As many as 219 Vietnamese workers have been contracted to work at the Sendje hydropower plant project in Equatorial Guinea’s Littoral province, the official VGP News quoted Deputy Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Le Van Thanh as saying.

Late last month, some of them visited the host country’s medical facilities for COVID-19 tests after exhibiting such symptoms as cough and fever, according to the VGP News. 

Test results released on June 30 showed that 16 had the virus and 20 others were suspected cases, the online newspaper of the Vietnamese government said.

As of July 9, 74 others were confirmed to have the virus, raising the total number of Vietnamese workers infected with COVID-19 in the Central African country to 112. 

At Friday’s meeting, PM Phuc tasked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work with competent authorities of foreign countries to increase the number of flights to bring home citizens stranded due to COVID-19, including the Vietnamese workers in Equatorial Guinea.

Over the past months, the foreign ministry has worked with the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Transport to arrange 55 flights carrying nearly 14,000 Vietnamese back home safely, the VGP News reported.

Phuc also urged competent authorities to strictly control borders in a bid to prevent COVID-19 community transmission amid complex developments of the pandemic across the world.

Vietnam has gone 87 consecutive days without a community infection of the respiratory disease, with the national tally standing at 370 cases as of Saturday afternoon.

Among the total, 350 have been cleared of the virus, with no deaths.

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