Vietnam to medically evacuate 120 Covid-19 infected citizens from Equatorial Guinea

The infected citizens, who are part of more than 200 Vietnamese managerial employees of three Vietnamese firms in Equatorial Guinea in Central Africa, will be repatriated in late July or early August, Pham Ngoc Thach, director of the Hanoi hospital, said Thursday.

The doctors and nurses will take medicines, equipment and protective gear with them, he said.

All 120 infected passengers and the crew will be quarantined and treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases upon arrival, and it will be the highest number of Covid-19 patients the hospital has had to treat at the same time, Thach said.

Among the 120 infected, three have recovered while the rest are still positive with the coronavirus, according to the Ministry of Health. Several have symptoms like cough, throat pain, headache or fever. Forty-six have chronic diseases, including high blood pressure and peptic ulcers.

In the last few months, Vietnam has repatriated thousands of its citizens from around the world, including the U.S., South Korea, Africa and South Asia.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said at a press briefing last week that 13,323 Vietnamese have been brought back on 55 flights since April 10.

Dinh Viet Thang, head of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, said another 50 flights or so would bring over 13,000 Vietnamese citizens home by the end of next month.

Vietnam has to date recorded 412 Covid-19 cases of which all but 47 have completely recovered. The country has recorded no community transmission in over three months.