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VNA seeks nod for transporting Covid-19 vaccine to Vietnam

By Le Anh

A Vietnam Airlines aircraft is parked at an airport. Vietnam Airlines affirmed that it has sufficient facilities and resources for the transportation of Covid-19 vaccines – PHOTO: COURTESY OF VIETNAM AIRLINES

HCMC – Vietnam Airlines JSC has proposed Vietnam’s national health authority allow it to transport Covid-19 vaccines to the country, affirming that it has sufficient facilities and resources for the transportation.

A Vietnam Airlines representative today, February 24, said that the national flag carrier had prepared all the essential resources to meet the stringent requirements for transporting the vaccines by air, including logistics services, modern cold storage facilities, well-trained personnel and frozen product transportation procedures in line with international standards, especially ultra-cold containers to store the vaccines.

These are special conditions for the transportation of the vaccines, as they need to be stored at cold temperatures.

Apart from that, Vietnam Airlines has years of experience in transporting medical supplies such as medicines, operation equipment and organs for transplantation. The carrier had operated dozens of flights carrying organs such as hearts, livers and kidneys for transplantation under extremely strict storage conditions, tight time constraints and long distances of thousands of kilometers among localities across the country.

Such flights require tight cooperation between the relevant units and the health sector. Vietnam Airlines can meet this requirement thanks to its comprehensive transport system.

The carrier can also operate wide-body aircraft such as Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 to many global destinations to carry home the vaccines.

Further, the carrier has already set up a special unit ready for the transportation of the vaccine upon a request from the authorities.

Earlier, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam had proposed the Ministry of Transport assign local airlines to conduct the transportation of Covid-19 vaccines to Vietnam.

Ba Ria-Vung Tau detects five Covid-19 cases after Indonesian sailor dies

The Saigon Times

Health care workers in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province take samples from residents for Covid-19 testing. Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province detected five positive Covid-19 cases, but there is no risk of community transmission – PHOTO: NLDO

HCMC – After a sailor onboard an Indonesian cargo ship sailing in the waters off Vietnam’s coast died, the Ba Ria-Vung Tau Center for Disease Control took samples from 20 other sailors onboard for Covid-19 testing and detected five positive cases.

The provincial center said on February 24 that it has now taken samples from the five sailors for a second test and sent them to the HCMC-based Pasteur Institute.

If the second test results come back positive, the ship will have to return to Indonesia.

After the death of the sailor, the Ocean Amazing ship departing from Indonesia stopped in the Vietnamese waters on February 20 to bring his body into the mainland and conduct procedures to take him home. The cause of death remains unknown.

The body of the sailor remains on the ship, along with the other sailors, and there is no risk of community transmission, the local media reported.

Lockdowns in all 33 areas in HCMC lifted

The Saigon Times

A security guard handles tape used to lock down on the 15th floor of the Carillon Apartment Building’s Block F in Tan Binh District, HCMC. The lockdowns in all 33 areas in the city have been lifted – PHOTO: PLO

HCMC – The lockdown on the 15th floor of the Carillon Apartment Building’s Block F on Hoang Hoa Tham Street, Tan Binh District, the last location that was on lockdown in HCMC, was lifted on February 23. Thus, the lockdowns in all 33 areas in the city have been lifted.

Nguyen Khac Nguyen, chairman of Ward 13, Tan Binh District, where the apartment building is located, said the move was made after all residents on the 15th floor had tested negative for Covid-19, the local media reported.

Block F was blocked from February 9 as a Covid-19 patient, who is an employee of Vietnam Airlines, lives there. Three people living in the same apartment with the patient were placed under quarantine at the Cu Chi Field Hospital, 26 others who had indirect contact with the patient were quarantined at home and all residents of the apartment building had their samples taken for Covid-19 testing.

The city has passed 13 consecutive days without new local infections and has basically controlled the infection cluster at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

However, the situation in other parts of the country remains complicated. The risk of community transmission is still high in the city as there are big numbers of people traveling from other localities to the city after the Lunar New Year holiday, according to the municipal Center for Disease Control.

From February 16, the city asked those coming to the city to make health declarations and randomly tested those at the Mien Dong Coach Station, the Saigon Railway Station, the Tan Son Nhat International Airport and boarding houses. Those from coronavirus-hit areas in Haiphong, Hai Duong and Hung Yen have been quarantined and tested.

The city is treating 43 Covid-19 patients and quarantining nearly 1,400 people in centralized quarantine centers and 571 others at home. The municipal Department of Health has come up with three response plans to combat the pandemic. In the worst-case scenario, the city will have 500 patients and some 2,800 people who are suspected of being infected with the disease.