Vietnam increases quarantine period regarding new outbreaks to 21 days: PM

By Phan Anh   January 28, 2021 | 04:30 am PT
Vietnam increases quarantine period regarding new outbreaks to 21 days: PM
Two women pack their belongings before getting out of a Covid-19 centralized quarantine zone in Hanoi's FPT University, April 12, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh.
Covid-19 quarantine period involving new community outbreaks confirmed Thursday will be increased from 14 to 21 days.

The order from Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc came after 84 cases were recorded in northern provinces of Hai Duong and Quang Ninh. Among them were a 34-year-old woman working for Vietnam Poyun Electronics Co., Ltd. in Hai Duong's Chi Linh Town and a 31-year-old man who works at the Van Don International Airport in Quang Ninh.

72 others are employees of Poyun and 10 work at the airport with the man.

The 34-year-old woman, a resident of Hung Dao Commune in Chi Linh, had come into close contact with a colleague who tested positive for the virus upon arriving in Japan last week. The colleague was later revealed to be infected by a coronavirus variant originating from the U.K., which is believed to be 70 percent more contagious than ordinary strains.

The PM order required F1 people, those who have been in close contact with these coronavirus cases, to be quarantined for 21 days instead of the usual period of 14 days. The stricter measures imposed were due to the presence of the U.K. coronavirus variant.

Social distancing periods during this period of outbreaks, if imposed, will also last 21 days, longer than the previous 15 days, it said.

Chi Linh Town, home to 220,000 people, was put under lockdown for 21 days starting Thursday noon.

The latest outbreak of novel coronavirus cases has broken Vietnam’s streak of nearly two months without community transmission, just a fortnight away from the Lunar New Year break in mid-February.

Contact tracing and other preventative measures are being rolled out, the most drastic one being a lockdown on Hai Duong’s Chi Linh Town for 21 days starting Thursday noon.

Vietnam has recorded 1,642 cases, 174 of them active. The national death toll is 35.

 
 
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