14 Army Games returnees from Russia are Covid-19 suspects

After they returned Tuesday from Russia, all 14 were quarantined at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi, Hoang Duc Hanh, deputy director of Hanoi’s Health Department, said at a meeting held the same day.

They will receive further tests for confirmation.

Following contact tracing, 11 others in the delegation who’d come into close contact with the suspects have also been isolated at the hospital, while 22 officials and staff of the Russian Embassy in Hanoi are quarantined at a hotel in the city.

The Vietnamese People's Army sent a contingent of 125 officers and soldiers to this year’s International Army Games, which were mainly held in Russia and also in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Uzbekistan from August 23 to September 5.

This is the third year that Vietnam attended the games. It won three bronze medals and a champion cup.

As of Tuesday, Russia had recorded more than one million Covid-19 cases and almost 18,000 deaths. Vietnam’s confirmed tally the same day was 1,054 with 35 deaths.

Hanoi has gone 22 days straight without recording community transmission of the novel coronavirus.

But the city’s deputy chairman Ngo Van Quy told the meeting that "it is possible that cases will return because the pandemic is still developing complicatedly, regionally and globally.

"It is quite stable for now but without drastic measures, it could become very dangerous," he said.

Unlike Ho Chi Minh City, which has recorded no community transmission for 36 days, Hanoi will continue to suspend disco bars and karaoke parlors for another week and will only lift the suspension after the situation is deemed to be under control.