Police in the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang have arrested ten young men and women for using narcotics at a birthday party during a social distancing period implemented by authorities to curb the local novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.

The group of people, aged 19 to 24, were caught partying with loud music inside a rented villa on Vo Nguyen Giap Street in Khue My Ward, Ngu Hanh Son District on Saturday night, officers confirmed on Sunday.

All of them are residents of Da Nang.

Police also found multiple tools for narcotics consumption and a plastic packet containing what officers suspect to be crystal meth.

Officers conducted rapid-result drug tests on the men and women, and all of the results came back positive.

At the police station, the suspects claimed they were throwing a birthday party and had prepared a birthday cake along with crystal meth.

In another relevant case, police in Hoa Cuong Nam Ward, Hai Chau District raided a local house on early Friday morning and found four men and four women drinking and using drugs.

Da Nang is currently the largest COVID-19 epicenter in Vietnam, with 374 local infections recorded in the past month.

Enhanced social distancing measures were previously implemented in Da Nang from July 28 until August 11 to curb the spread of the virus. The period was extended indefinitely on August 12 due to continued community transmission.

Authorities in the coastal city have banned crowded events, shuttered non-essential services, and stopped receiving domestic tourists to prevent the virus from spreading.

Residents are required to stay at home, only going out for essentials such as food, medicine, or work.

Public gatherings outside of schools, offices, and hospitals are limited to two people and a minimum distance of two meters between one another must be maintained.

Vietnam’s COVID-19 tally is at 1,016, with 568 having recovered and 27 deaths as of Monday morning.

A total of 534 local infections have been confirmed since July 25, when Da Nang recorded Vietnam’s first community-based COVID-19 case after the country had gone 99 days without any local transmission.

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