The Hanoi Department of Health and the Capital High Command are jointly requesting the Hanoi People's Committee to set up two field hospitals to deal with a rising number of peope coming from areas stricken by Covid-19, Tuoitre.vn reported.

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Each hospital with 600 beds for 3,000 patients belongs to a contingency plan to curb the spread of the Covid-19 disease.

The health department forecast the number of people coming from the epidemic-hit regions will increase in the time ahead, exceeding the capacity of the current quarantine facilities.

Reports from Hanoi's districts showed that 414 people have arrived in Hanoi from South Korea’s epidemic epicenters in the past 14 days, including 23 from Daegu city (22 Vietnamese and one South Korean), 15 from North Gyeongsang province (13 Vietnamese and two South Koreans).

Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Ngo Van Quy stressed that if the proposal is approved, surveys will immediately be carried out to build new isolation areas.

"There are only more than 500 beds in the quarantine area, while on February 26 night, there would be five flights landing on Hanoi, carrying hundreds of people back home. If we are not prepared, quarantine spaces would be overcrowded," Quy said.

He added that the returnees from the epidemic regions should be strictly quarantined no less than 14 days.

Earlier, Vietnam’s Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs also advised Vietnamese workers in South Korea’s two provinces of Daegu and Gyeongbuk against traveling to epidemic regions or leaving the country if not necessary to curb the spread of the disease.