Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have discovered 11 Chinese nationals they say entered the country illegally after inspecting a local condominium.

The Chinese nationals were staying at an apartment in Ward 22, Binh Thanh District, Nguyen Tri Dung, head of the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control (HCDC), confirmed during a meeting on Wednesday.

The entire group was promptly sent to a quarantine facility and an investigation into the case has been launched, he said.

Earlier this week, the HCDC announced that they had busted another group, consisting of eight Chinese and one Vietnamese, who had entered the country illegally.

The second group was found in District 12 and sent to a quarantine facility in the outskirt district of Cu Chi.

Ho Chi Minh City now faces a high risk of new community-based novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases from tourists returning from the central city of Da Nang, Vietnam’s current COVID-19 epicenter, and from those entering the country illegally, according to Dung.

The original source of infection in Da Nang may have been from people who have illegally entered the country, the official added, explaining that information on illegal entry cases must be publicized as soon as it becomes available in order to protect local residents, he added.  

Authorities in the city have detected a total of 38 cases of illegal entry since May.

Vietnam’s COVID-19 tally sits at 459, with 369 having recovered as of Thursday morning.

The country has recorded 43 community-based cases, all traced back to Da Nang, since Saturday last week, according to a Tuoi Tre News count. These cases follow a 99 day period without a single community transmission.

34 of the 43 new patients are located Da Nang, three in Quang Nam Province, one in Quang Ngai Province, two in Hanoi, two in Ho Chi Minh City, and one in Dak Lak Province.

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