TodayThursday, September 03, 2026

Coronavirus: a first municipality placed in quarantine in Vietnam

A Vietnamese town of 10,000 near Hanoi has been locked down for 20 days after five coronavirus cases were detected, stranding residents in the first quarantine of its kind in the country.
February 16, 2020
Health worker in protective gear disinfecting a Vietnam Airlines aircraft at Noi Bai airport in Hanoi during the coronavirus outbreak
A health worker disinfects a Vietnam Airlines aircraft at Noi Bai airport in Hanoi as Vietnam ramped up quarantine and disinfection measures during the coronavirus outbreak in early 2020. [Image Source: TRT World/Reuters]

A town of 10,000 inhabitants near Hanoi has been quarantined for fear of the spread of the new coronavirus, a first in the country, we learned Thursday from the Vietnamese Ministry of Health.

His commune’s “quarantine” was ordered for twenty days, the ministry said, while five cases of Covid-19 were detected in this small town in the province of Vinh Phuc, located around 30 kilometers northwest of the Vietnamese capital.

“We are all stranded in the town and we work in our rice fields and gardens” but this will certainly affect a large number of inhabitants having “outside employment as a house painter, worker …”, said Tran Van Minh, a resident, contacted by AFP by phone.

According to him, “a woman infected her family and her neighbors”.

Fifteen people in Vietnam are affected by the coronavirus epidemic that started in China in December.

A medical worker in protective equipment checking patient records at Jinyintan hospital in Wuhan China during the early COVID-19 outbreak
A medical worker in protective equipment at Jinyintan hospital in Wuhan, China, during the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak in February 2020. [Image Source: VOA]

The toll rose sharply on Thursday with more than 1,300 people dead and nearly 60,000 infected in mainland China, following a change in the detection method.

These new figures may fuel speculation that the severity of the epidemic, officially called Covid-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO), may have been underestimated.

News Room

News Room

Covering U.S. and global politics, international relations, national security, and breaking news as it unfolds.

Leave a Reply

Don't Miss