20 oil experts arriving in Saigon to be quarantined in hotels

The city Department of Health, at a meeting with the Steering Committee for the Prevention and Control of Covid-19 on Monday, said they would fly into Tan Son Nhat Airport by private jet.

Their nationalities have not been disclosed.

Nguyen Tan Binh, director of the department, said the city is expected to receive more foreign experts this month.

The southern city has had 54 Covid-19 cases so far, three of them active.

Earlier this month around 1,000 foreign experts, mostly Chinese and South Korean, arrived in northern and north central Vietnam and have been quarantined. Many of them work in electronics and other manufacturing industries.

On March 22 Vietnam banned entry for foreign nationals, including those of Vietnamese origin and their family members.

Only Vietnamese nationals and foreigners with diplomatic and official passports, and certain business managers, experts and high-skilled workers are allowed to enter the country now and are quarantined.

Over 20,000 foreigners have not been able to enter Vietnam for work, according to data from the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.

The country has had 270 Covid-19 cases, of which 48 are active, including eight cases of relapse. The last recorded cases were four days ago, and there has been no community transmission since April 16.

The pandemic has spread to 210 countries and territories claiming more than 211,600 lives.