Two jailed for assaulting Covid-19 task force member

Nguyen Cong Trinh, 37, got nine months and Kieu Van Thanh, 50, got a year at the Gia Nghia Town People's Court on Wednesday.

Trinh, the husband of a café owner in Gia Nghia’s Nghia Thanh Ward, and Thanh, the owner of the café premises, on April 9 confronted the ward's Covid-19 task force members who came around to file a report on the shop violating social distancing rules.

The task force saw around a dozen people together at the café and without masks.

When his wife was signing to acknowledge the complaint, Trinh snatched and tore it in a struggle with a task force member while Thanh punched that man.

The two later said they had been drunk at the time.

The previous day two men were also jailed in Thai Binh and Bac Ninh provinces for assaulting Covid-19 task force members who asked them to put on masks.

Vietnam has fined thousands of people for violating regulations as it combats the spread of the disease.

The country has had 268 Covid-19 cases so far, 97 of them currently active, and no deaths.

The global death toll has risen to over 134,600 and the disease has spread to 210 countries and territories.