An elementary school in Vietnam has been shut down after a rapid COVID-19 test found two students who are siblings positive, local authorities reported on Saturday.

Nguyen Viet Xuan Elementary School in Ea Kar District, Dak Lak Province has been locked down after two students, who are siblings with one in first grade and the other in fourth grade, got a positive rapid coronavirus test, said Nguyen Manh Hung, chairman of the commune’s administration.

Ten teachers and 96 other students have been placed in quarantine at the school, Hung said, adding that they have been given rapid tests and are waiting for results.

“All students are kept at the school under the direct care of teachers who are supported by local authorities,” the chairman said.

“The commune has called on their mothers to come and voluntarily stay at the school to take part in looking after their children.”

All epidemic prevention measures have been deployed at the school and in related areas, local authorities said.

The two students, along with their grandmother, tested positive for the coronavirus after their parents got the same test result when they returned home from Nha Trang City, located in south-central Khanh Hoa Province, Hung said.

These cases were detected as many new COVID-19 outbreaks have recently appeared in many locations in the province, such as Buon Ma Thuot City, Buon Ho Town, and the districts of Lak and Ea Kar, with up to hundreds of infections per day.

The Dak Lak administration has just decided to establish the 1,500-bed Field Hospital No. 2 in Buon Ma Thuot City for treating COVID-19 patients without symptoms or with mild symptoms.

With the new facility, the province now has six hospitals with 3,420 beds in total for coronavirus patients.

A group of doctors and health workers from Ho Chi Minh City-based Cho Ray Hospital left the city for Dak Lak on October 26 to support the province in curbing the increasing COVID-19 spread.    

Dak Lak has rather low COVID-19 vaccination coverage, with 38.3 percent of its adult population partially immunized and only 7.27 percent of them fully inoculated as of October 27, according to local health authorities.

By Saturday afternoon, Dak Lak had recorded 3,730 cases, including 23 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health’s data.

Vietnam has confirmed a total of 915,603 COVID-19 cases, including 818,336 recoveries and 22,030 fatalities.

Recently, the Southeast Asian nation’s daily new infections and deaths have sharply decreased, to 5,227 and 64 on Saturday from 7,940 and 159 a month earlier. 

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