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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.

First doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine arrive in Vietnam

The Saigon Times

AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine. Vietnam today, February 24, received the first batch of the vaccine – PHOTO: VNVC

HCMC – The first 117,600 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine produced by British drugmaker AstraZeneca in association with the University of Oxford arrived at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCMC today, February 24, to meet the country’s high demand.

A representative of Vietnam Vaccine JSC (VNVC) said the batch was part of the 30 million doses of the vaccine that VNVC had earlier ordered. It signed a contract to import the vaccine with AstraZeneca last November, the local media reported.

The Ministry of Health has facilitated VNVC to quickly import the vaccine as the pandemic has spread to 13 cities and provinces over the last 27 days.

The ministry yesterday announced 11 groups of individuals who will be prioritized to receive the first doses of the Covid-19 vaccines, including health care workers; those involved in the fight against the pandemic, including members of steering committees, employees at quarantine centers and journalists; diplomatic and customs officials; and police officers and soldiers among others.

VNVC is the unique unit in Vietnam to receive AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine. Its three super-cold warehouses in HCMC, Danang and Hanoi can accommodate three million doses of the vaccine.

Besides the 30 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine ordered by VNVC, Covax Facility has committed to providing Vietnam with some 4.9 million doses free of charge in the first half of this year and 33 million doses in the third quarter.

The Ministry of Health on February 1 approved the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine ChAdOx in Vietnam.

Schools in HCMC to be reopened on March 1

The Saigon Times

A security guard checks the body temperature of a student. Students in HCMC will return to school on March 1 – PHOTO: PLO

HCMC – More than 1.74 million students in HCMC will return to school from March 1 after a long break due to the resurgence of Covid-19.

The municipal government made the decision on February 24, asking the Department of Education and Training to coordinate with the Department of Health to instruct schools to take measures to ensure safety for students and teachers, the local media reported.

Schools must ask students and trainees returning to the city from Covid-19-hit areas or having visited these areas to make health declarations.

Those who deliberately make dishonest health declarations or fail to comply with quarantine regulations will be addressed in line with the law. In addition, the municipal government required schools to direct their students, teachers and employees to declare their health conditions online on a daily basis.

The HCMC government had earlier decided to allow students to stay home and study online after the Tet holiday.

On February 23, the municipal Department of Education and Training proposed the resumption of schools in the city from March 1.

As of February 19, the local education sector reported a student infected with Covid-19, 74 students and teachers having direct contact with Covid-19 patients, 361 students and teachers having indirect contact with patients and 2,680 students and teachers returning from Covid-19-stricken areas.

Meanwhile, the entire city has confirmed 210 Covid-19 cases, with 193 of them having recovered from the disease and 17 others being treated. In addition, the city is quarantining more than 1,300 people at centralized quarantine centers and 524 others at home.

Dead Japanese man in Hanoi diagnosed with new Covid-19 variant

The Saigon Times

A medical worker performs Covid-19 tests. A Japanese man who died in Hanoi City on February 13 was identified to be infected with a new variant of Covid-19 that has never been reported in Vietnam before – PHOTO: MOH

HCMC – A Japanese man who died in Hanoi City on February 13 was identified to be infected with a new variant of Covid-19 that has never been reported in Vietnam before.

Speaking at an online meeting on February 24, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said that the new Covid-19 strain has become the fifth variant to be reported in Vietnam.

Associate Professor Dr. Tran Dac Phu, senior advisor at the Center for Emergency Response to Public Health Events of Vietnam, said that the spread of the new strain is not too rapid.

The Covid-19 strain appears mainly in South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and India, Phu added.

Earlier, Vietnam had reported three variants of Covid-19, which originated from Britain, South Africa and Rwanda, and another variant appearing in Danang City in July and August last year.

The Japanese patient, tagged as the 2,229th Covid-19 case, was an expert at Mitsui Vietnam. The 54-year-old man entered Vietnam through the HCMC-based Tan Son Nhat International Airport on January 17 and was sent to a concentrated quarantine center in Tan Binh District’s Ward 2. He tested negative for the disease on January 17 and 31.

On February 1, the man flew to Hanoi City and stayed at a hotel in Tay Ho District. He was found dead in his hotel room at 7.00 p.m. on February 13. His positive test result came out on February 14.

Two of 586 people linked to the patient tested positive for Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.