Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Monday asked local authorities to quarantine all people who come from areas hit by the Covid-19 epidemic.
“The government’s top priority is to keep the situation under control to protect people’s health,” the PM said at a meeting on Monday.
PM Phuc made the affirmation following concerns over the increasing number of people tested positive with Covid-19 in South Korea.
Four Vietnamese and eight South Korean airlines are operating 563 flights per week between the two countries.
Meanwhile, there are around 200,000 Vietnamese citizens living in South Korea, including 26,000 living in epidemic-hit areas.
As such, Vietnam will quarantine all people traveling across epidemic-hit areas in South Korea and China
In addition, the government has warned its citizens not to go to South Korea’s epidemic-stricken zones and would not welcome people from those areas coming to Vietnam.
Vietnam has also advised its citizens to follow local authorities’ instructions and not to hurriedly return to the home country.
So far, several localities in Vietnam have quarantined people coming from South Korea’s epidemic areas, mostly Daegu and Gyeongsang.
Hanoi alone has planned to quarantine all Vietnamese people returning to the city from South Korea’s epidemic zones and isolation at home for those from those areas.
As of February 25, South Korea reported 893 people infected with the new coronavirus..
Vietnam has 16 people found positive with the new coronavirus and all of them have recovered.
