Coronavirus: in Vietnam, a town near Hanoi placed in quarantine

Text by: RFI Follow

In Vietnam, Son Loi, a commune near Hanoi, was placed in quarantine on Thursday, February 13, after the discovery of several cases of coronavirus. It is a first in Vietnam.

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The Vietnamese Ministry of Health has ruled: His Law, a municipality of 10,000 inhabitants in the province of Vinh Phuc, about thirty kilometers northwest of the capital Hanoi, is quarantined for a period of 20 days, at count from Thursday 13 February. The reason: the discovery of new cases of coronavirus and the fear of an even greater spread.

Sixteen cases listed in Vietnam

Six first cases of coronavirus were discovered in this commune. Covid-19 spread via a woman who had left for training in the city of Wuhan, the cradle of the epidemic in China . The infection first affected his family, then his neighbors. Among the sick is a baby just three months old. Since then, the number of people infected with His Law has increased to eleven, out of the sixteen cases identified in Vietnam.

The local authorities therefore decided to place the village in quarantine. Checkpoints have been set up around His Law and residents are asked to avoid rallies and sports competitions. Officers in protective suits spray disinfectant on the few government vehicles entering the area.

Vietnamese authorities are spreading chemical disinfectants in the Vinh Phuc province to stem the spread of Covid-19. Nguyen Huy Kham / Reuters

Authorities take tailor-made measure

The villagers, for the moment, are not afraid of a food shortage. Many houses have a plot of cultivated land. On the other hand, residents working outside the isolation zone are worried; the authorities will pay them a small compensation of 1.60 euros per day and per person.

The Vietnamese government has taken other measures at the national level. In Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, in the north and in the center of the country, several sites have been converted into hospitals and containment centers. In addition, flights to and from western China were banned and passenger trains were stopped. The new tourist visas for Chinese and foreign nationals who have stayed in China in the past two weeks are also suspended.

(With AFP)

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• Vietnam
• Health and Medicine
• coronavirus

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