Hundreds of Vietnamese citizens repatriated from Thailand

They traveled on a Vietnam Airlines flight organized by the Vietnamese Foreign Affairs Ministry in cooperation with Thai authorities and landed at Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi at 4 p.m.

The returnees included adolescents, students with no place to stay after their schools and dormitories shut down, senior citizens, people with illnesses and underlying conditions needing treatment, and tourists in Thailand. The passengers paid their own fares.

All safety measures were taken during the flight to protect the health of the passengers and prevent the spread of the disease, a ministry statement said.

The passengers received medical examinations and were quarantined upon arrival.

Vietnamese authorities have said they will continue to bring citizens home based on the pandemic situation in foreign countries, citizens' desire to return and quarantining capacity at home.

The Covid-19 pandemic has spread to 213 countries and territories, infecting almost 4.9 million people. The reported death toll to date is more than 320,000.

Since April, Vietnam has repatriated thousands of its citizens from several countries including the U.S., Europe, Russia and other Southeast Asian nations. They have been quarantined on arrival and sent to special treatment facilities if they test positive for the novel coronavirus.

Monday marked the 32nd consecutive date without any community transmission in Vietnam, but four new Covid-19 infections were confirmed, all returnees from abroad. Two of the four were flight attendants on a recent repatriation flight from Russia, while the others were students repatriated from the U.S.

Vietnam has recorded 324 Covid-19 cases to date, 184 of them imported. Of these 263 have recovered after treatment. No deaths have been recorded so far.