City near Saigon seals off residential area over one COVID-19 case
Monday, August 03, 2020, 16:11 GMT+7
Authorities in a province-level city started locking down a residential area for two weeks at noon on Monday after a person living there was confirmed to catch COVID-19.
The lockdown is now imposed on about 900 people of 182 households on Ho Van Dai Street, Quang Vinh Ward, Bien Hoa City, which is the capital of Dong Nai Province.
The city is located around 35km to the northeast of Ho Chi Minh City.
All residents had been informed of the lockdown before it was enforced, Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper journalists reported from the scene.
Health officers had also fumigated the neighborhood while checkpoints were already established.
The shutdown will be in place for 14 days – the advised incubation period of the novel coronavirus.
Food will be supplied to the residents, who will be subject to health monitoring during the period.
Any defiance will not be tolerated, the Bien Hoa People’s Committee said.
A COVID-19 patient has her residence on the street, said Nguyen Duy Tan, chief of office of the Bien Hoa People’s Committee.
Health workers will run temperature checks every day to detect the virus and prevent it from spreading to the outside community.
“Everyone should stay calm because we’re doing this to ensure public health,” Tan said.
“We hope that all residents will abide by the epidemic prevention rules.”
Authorities have traced the patient’s contacts and tested them, Tan said, adding that at least 11 had their results return negative.
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| Health workers fumigate Ho Van Dai Street, Quang Vinh Ward, Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai Province. Photo: Ha Mi / Tuoi Tre |
The Ministry of Health announced the patient, numbered 595, on Sunday.
The 50-year-old patient, whose husband works in the oncology ward of the provincial general hospital in Dong Nai, visited her father at Da Nang Hospital, located in the namesake city on the central coast, on July 19. She came into contact with an undetected COVID-19 patient from July 20 to 27.
The oncology ward has been isolated.
A total of 174 locally-transmitted cases have been traced to Da Nang, many at Da Nang Hospital, since July 25, after 99 days of no documented community transmission of the virus in Vietnam.
The Southeast Asian country has reported 621 cases as of Monday afternoon, with 373 recoveries and six deaths.
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