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Vietnam records 121 more Covid-19 cases

The Saigon Times

A local woman has her nasal swab taken for Covid-19 testing. Vietnam’s Covid-19 tally amounted to 12,424 with 121 fresh cases being confirmed by the Ministry of Health this afternoon, June 18 – PHOTO: VNA

HCMC – Vietnam’s Covid-19 cases soared to 12,424 with 121 fresh cases confirmed by the Ministry of Health this afternoon, June 18. The new infections included two imported cases and 119 locally-infected ones.

HCMC remains among the biggest coronavirus hotspots as it accounted for half of the country’s domestic infections, at 59. Bac Giang recorded 36 cases, Binh Duong 12, Bac Ninh 10, Hoa Binh one and Lao Cai one.

Thai Nguyen City in the northern province of the same name recently announced that a local woman in Phan Dinh Phung Ward tested positive for the coronavirus last night, the local media reported.

Mai Xuan Tung, deputy chief of the city’s government’s office, said this morning that the woman flew from HCMC to Hanoi four days ago, boarding the local carrier Bamboo Airways’ Flight QH0224.

Earlier, she underwent a mandatory 21-day quarantine in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang and tested negative for the virus three times, with the third test’s result coming out on June 13.

After her arrival in Hanoi, she returned to her home in Thai Nguyen on a car and then a motorbike taxi. She declared her health status at a medical station in Phan Dinh Phung Ward and was asked to self-quarantine at home for another seven days.

However, on June 15, she visited a Viettel store and an Agribank branch in the city. She also went to a supermarket the following day.

On June 17, she tested positive for the virus and was sent into quarantine.

The local authorities then locked down her place of residence, quarantined the neighboring areas, and conducted contact tracing. As of last night, they found 43 people coming into close contact with her and placed them in quarantine.

Saigon Times-Great Circle program presents gifts to medical workers in District 5

By Le Vu – Trinh Hoang

Vo Hong Van (R, 2nd), a representative of the Saigon Times Group, and Nguyen Quoc Viet (L, 2nd), deputy director of the District 5 Medical Center, pose for a photo with medical workers of the center – PHOTOS: LE VU

HCMC – As part of the “Saigon Times – Great Circle – Join hands to fight the Covid-19 pandemic” program, the Saigon Times Group on June 17 coordinated with the Tan Hiep Phat Group’s Dr Thanh tea brand and Acecook Vietnam JSC to present 200 gift sets to medical workers of the District 5 Medical Center in HCMC.

The gift sets, including 100 boxes of instant noodles of Acecook Vietnam and 100 boxes of Dr Thanh cooling tea, were expected to lend a helping hand to frontline medical workers in the Covid-19 combat.

Employees of the Saigon Times Group load gift sets onto a truck

Nguyen Quoc Viet, deputy director of the District 5 Medical Center, said like other agencies, the center was prepared to fight the pandemic. The capacity of a centralized quarantine center had been increased to 200 beds.

The “Saigon Times – Great Circle – Join hands to fight the Covid-19 pandemic” is a meaningful and prompt program to encourage frontline medical workers to bring the pandemic under control, Viet added.

The current fourth Covid-19 wave has shown no signs of abating in HCMC and the country as a whole. The Saigon Times Group is calling on enterprises, entrepreneurs and benefactors to contribute to the Covid-19 fight so as to early bring life to back to normal.

A medical worker of the District 5 Medical Center is at work

On June 15, the Saigon Times Group joined hands with the An Cuong Wood Working Joint Stock Company, the Saigon Thang Long Group and the Thang Loi Group to donate eight tons of rice and other gifts to residents of the Ehome 3 apartment building compound under lockdown in Binh Tan District.

In the coming period, essential commodities will be presented to medical workers in other districts in the city.

One more hospital in HCMC suspends operations after Covid-19 case detected

The Saigon Times

The main entrance of the District 4 Hospital in HCMC, which has announced its temporary closure to prevent the spread of Covid-19 – PHOTO: TNO

HCMC – The District 4 Hospital in HCMC today, June 18, temporarily stopped receiving outpatients after a person who visited it tested positive for the coronavirus.

The person was identified as the hospital’s outpatient, who is suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The patient underwent a rapid test because of cough and fever on June 17. The test result came back negative for the coronavirus, but a RT-PCR test showed the case is positive for the virus.

The HCMC Center for Disease Control is tracing contacts of the case and determining the source of infection, while the hospital is suspending its operations, the local media reported.

Earlier, many other hospitals in the city had shut down after their staff or patients were found to have Covid-19, including the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases, the Tan Phu District Hospital, the Binh Thanh District Hospital, the Nam Saigon General Hospital and the University Medical Center – a major hospital under the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in HCMC.

As of this morning, HCMC reported 1,257 community-transmitted cases in the current fourth wave of the coronavirus, which began on April 27.

Four company directors charged with arranging illegal entry into Vietnam

The Saigon Times

Tran Thanh Son, director of Stad Advertising Service Co., Ltd. Four company directors have been charged with allegedly organizing the illegal entry of foreigners into Vietnam – PHOTO: DANANG POLICE DEPARTMENT

HCMC – The Danang Police Department on June 17 filed charges against the directors of four companies for allegedly organizing the illegal entry of foreigners into Vietnam.

The four comprised Vo Tan Cuong, director of Kuvarose Co., Ltd; Do Van Hoat, director of An Nhien Information Technology Co., Ltd; Nguyen Trung Thu, director of KV Tour & Media Co., Ltd; and Tran Thanh Son, director of Stad Advertising Service Co., Ltd, the local media reported.

Son and Cuong were detained, while Hoat and Thu were put under house arrest as they had turned themselves in and cooperated with the police.

Earlier, the Danang Police Department had prosecuted seven people, including three directors and a Chinese national, for their involvement in the ring.

According to the preliminary results of the police investigation, the directors provided guarantees to Chinese and South Korean people and helped them enter Vietnam as foreign experts, when they were actually unskilled workers.

After entering Vietnam, these foreigners did not work for these companies.

Deputy PM suggests second thought on citywide social distancing in HCMC

The Saigon Times

An area in District 12’s Thanh Loc Ward is locked down. Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam says large-scale social distancing in HCMC should not be extended – PHOTO: PLO

HCMC – Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, speaking at a teleconference with HCMC on June 17, stressed that the city should not protract its citywide social distancing order as it is leaving enormous impact on the economy and society.

Dam, who is also the head of the national steering committee for Covid-19 infection prevention and control, told the city to find ways to determine Covid-19 infection clusters and their sources of infection as quickly as possible, the local media reported.

Social distancing is aimed at slowing down the spread of the coronavirus, tracing contacts, determining sources of infection and identifying affected areas. Inside Covid-19-hit areas, anti-pandemic measures must be strictly enforced to stop the virus spreading as some of these areas have been found to not seriously comply with the measures, Dam said.

For industrial parks, the deputy prime minister asked the city to maintain aggressive measures and do more testing there to detect any Covid-19 positive cases within the first three days of infection.

At the meeting, HCMC Vice Chairman Duong Anh Duc said most of the new Covid-19 cases in the city were found in areas under lockdown. At the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases, no new Covid-19 cases have been detected over the past few days.

After detecting a case at the University Medical Center on June 15, all employees and patients at the hospital had tested negative.

Duc said vaccination had helped reduce the transmission risk at these hospitals. In addition, the authorities of the districts and Thu Duc City had established teams to inspect compliance with the prime minister’s Directive 15.

On June 17, the lockdown in many areas was lifted but many new areas were put on lockdown. Seven enterprises in industrial parks have reported one to two cases each.

As for the vaccination campaign, the city has received 836,000 doses and has worked out a vaccination plan and determined people who should have priority access to receive the jabs. The city has set a target to inoculate up to 200,000 people per day.

Assessing the developments of the pandemic in HCMC, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son said some cases without known sources of infection had been detected but these clusters could be put under control.

The city has reported more than 1,000 cases and must prepare response plans if the count exceeds 5,000. The city should make emergency and recuperation equipment available for critical cases, Son added.

The Ministry of Health has dispatched experts to HCMC to help the city combat the pandemic. They would assess the factories and propose to those meeting certain requirements to arrange for their workers to stay at the factories after work.