Ho Chi Minh City authorities have locked down a hotel where suspected COVID-19 patients once stayed to prevent transmission.

Police officers and militiamen guarded the locked-down hotel on Wednesday morning, according to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper journalists who reported from the scene.

Located in District 11, the hotel lies opposite Cho Ray, which is considered the best general hospital in the city.

Four hotel employees were sent to a collective quarantine facility on Tuesday night while more than 40 guests are being quarantined at the hotel, the District 11 Medical Center said on Wednesday.

Suspected COVID-19 cases once stayed at the hotel, which was already fumigated from Tuesday night till the wee hours of Wednesday.

In a related development, City International Hospital in Binh Tan District will not admit new patients from Wednesday to Friday, the management board of the hospital said in a notice on Wednesday morning, citing COVID-19 concerns.

“When there is any suspected [coronavirus] case, such a shutdown is advisable,” an official from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health told Tuoi Tre on Wednesday morning, implying suspected coronavirus patients had been there.

Authorities have also asked two makeshift hospitals in Cu Chi and Can Gio Districts, as well as the City Children's Hospital in Binh Chanh District, to be ready for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, especially those who are critically sickened.

Vietnam has logged 30 community-based cases since Saturday last week, ending a streak of 99 days without a single local transmission, according to a Tuoi Tre News count.

Twenty-six of the patients, including three critical cases, are in Da Nang, three in Quang Nam, and one in Quang Ngai Province. Those in Quang Nam and Quang Ngai are all linked to the Da Nang cases.

About 18,000 people who had been in Da Nang have returned to Ho Chi Minh City over the past few days, authorities said.

The city has announced it will test all arriving from Da Nang since July 1 to prevent COVID-19 transmission.

Vietnam has registered 446 coronavirus patients as of Wednesday morning, with 276 imported cases quarantined upon arrival, according to the health ministry.

The Southeast Asian nation has confirmed 369 recoveries and zero fatalities to date.

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