Ho Chi Minh City residents who recently returned from the central city of Da Nang, Vietnam’s current COVID-19 outbreak epicenter, can get back to work after finishing the required 14-day quarantine regardless of their COVID-19 testing status, the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Diseases Control (HCDC) has said.

Those who have finished the government-mandated quarantine period and exhibit no disease symptoms are eligible to return to their offices, even if they have not been sampled for COVID-19 testing or have been sampled with results still pending, according to an HCDC announcement.

However, these people must strictly take preventive measures, including wearing a face mask when leaving their house or at work, not going to crowded places, not staying in close contact with other people, washing their hands regularly, and self-monitoring their health condition.

In addition, they must keep a detailed record of their whereabouts from the date of leaving Da Nang until their test results are available.

As of Friday afternoon, as many as 13,000 people in Ho Chi Minh City who had returned from Da Nang from July 1 have yet to be sampled for COVID-19 testing, while 3,000 samples have not been tested, HCDC reported.

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health has requested competent district-level agencies to finish sampling all the remaining returnees from Da Nang by Sunday, August 9, and release test results by August 11.

Currently, Ho Chi Minh City has 13 institutions, including eight hospitals, authorized by the Ministry of Health to perform the COVID-19 confirmation test.

Eight more hospitals are capable of conducting conclusive COVID-19 testing and pending health ministry authorization.

The southern metropolis has reported eight COVID-19 cases since July 25, when Vietnam’s first locally-transmitted infection after 99 days was detected in Da Nang.

The central city has since logged 235 infections and seven fatalities.

Nationwide, Vietnam has logged a total of 789 COVID-19 cases, of which 395 have made a full recovery and ten, with underlying conditions, have died.

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