Over 50 Vietnamese babies flown home without parents amid COVID-19
Monday, September 07, 2020, 12:09 GMT+7
Fifty-three Vietnamese babies were brought to Vietnam from South Korea on Sunday, unaccompanied by their parents due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
The 53 babies, together with 350 other Vietnamese citizens, boarded flight VN409 that landed at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City.
Due to challenges posed by the pandemic, the babies’ parents, who are working in South Korea, could not travel home with them but the children were accompanied by acquaintances on the flight.
Most of the babies are under one year old, according to Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper.
Upon their arrival, the babies were brought to a centralized facility in Bau Bang District in the southern province of Binh Duong, around 65 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City.
Forty-one people who are family members of the babies in Vietnam have registered to be quaratined with them as their guardians.
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| People are sampled for COVID-19 testing at a centralized quarantine facility in Bau Bang District, Binh Duong Province, Vietnam, September 6, 2020. Photo: H.M.C. / Tuoi Tre |
This is the first time the facility has received such a large number of little returnees at a time.
Vietnam has documented 1,049 COVID-19 cases, including 691 domestic infections, since the pandemic first hit in January.
The country has recorded 815 recoveries and 35 virus-related deaths as of Monday morning, according to Ministry of Health statistics.
A total of 551 local cases, mostly linked to Da Nang, have been registered since July 25, when the beach city reported the first domestic transmission after the nation had gone 99 days without any community-based infection.
South Korea’s COVID-19 tally was 21,177, with 334 deaths, on Sunday, according to Reuters.
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