After a crew member was deemed at high risk of COVID-19 infection, a total of 182 individuals on the Ambassador Cruise was sent to quarantine after the luxury ship reached the shore of Ha Long City in Vietnam on Monday.

The official order to quarantine the 182 people on the Ambassador Cruise, including 122 passengers and 60 crew members, was mentioned by a leader of Ha Long City in a discussion with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Sunday.

Ha Long City authorities have found T.H.D., 26, a kitchen staff member on the Ambassador Cruise, to be a direct contact of a COVID-19 case from northern Ha Nam Province. 

It was later revealed that D. went to his hometown in Ly Nhan District of Ha Nam a few days earlier to attend a wedding party.

During his time there, he came in contact with a person in Bac Ly Commune, who later tested positive for COVID-19.

Around midday on Monday, while it was sailing in Ha Long Bay with D. on board, the cruise ship was summoned to the shore for all of her passengers and crew members to be sent to a dedicated quarantine zone. 

D. returned to Ha Long City on April 29 and has been working in the kitchen of the Ambassador Cruise for tourists’ excursions around the bay since, according to epidemiology reports. 

After the ship reached the shore on Monday, D. was directed to a quarantine zone, while all crew members underwent COVID-19 testing. 

If D. tests positive for the pathogen, authorities will roll out contact tracing, area outlining, and mass testing for all direct contacts of the case, Ha Long leaders said.

Otherwise, close monitoring of all staffers and passengers aboard the ship will still be maintained.

Vietnam has confirmed 2,985 coronavirus infections, including 1,607 local cases and 35 deaths, since the virus first struck the country on January 23, 2020, according to the health ministry’s data.

The Southeast Asian nation has seen the virus return, as 37 domestic cases have been recorded since April 27 after it had gone about a month without detecting any community transmission.

The government has vaccinated almost 540,000 people, including over 6,500 on Monday, since its roll-out of mass immunization on March 8, it said in a report on its verified Facebook account.

Those inoculated were medical staff and other frontline workers.

Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and other provinces have shuttered non-essential services such as karaoke parlors, nightclubs, discos, and online game centers to quell the virus.

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