Ho Chi Minh City ends isolation of hotels as Chinese border jumpers test negative for COVID-19

Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have lifted lockdown on two hotels where 40 Chinese border jumpers had stayed after they tested negative for COVID-19 once.

Thirty-five of the Chinese border jumpers were found at a hotel in District 1 on Saturday, according to police officers.

Officials already ended the isolation of the hotel, as per COVID-19 prevention protocols, for they had tested negative for the virus once, the District 1 Medical Center told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Sunday morning.

The 35 Chinese are still being isolated at a makeshift hospital in Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City and will be retested in the coming days, the center added.

Authorities started fumigating and locking down the hotel on Saturday afternoon after detecting the group of illegal Chinese migrants.

Five other Chinese border jumpers had also tested negative for the pathogen, Nguyen Tri Dung, director of the municipal Center for Disease Control, told Tuoi Tre on Sunday afternoon.

The five were discovered staying at a hotel in Go Vap District on Friday.  

Local officials have lifted lockdown on the hotel but the five are being quarantined at the makeshift hospital in Cu Chi to wait for further testing.

Ho Chi Minh City authorities will continue conducting random COVID-19 tests on passengers at airports, bus terminals, train stations, and other crowded places to pre-empt community spread, the Center for Disease Control said.

A total of 25,853 such tests have been conducted since February 17, with 25,637 having returned negative and 216 pending results.

The city has also retested 1,018 experts who have entered Ho Chi Minh City since January 1. All tests came back negative.

Ho Chi Minh City has gone 24 days without detecting any community cases of COVID-19.

Nine hundred employees of the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases will be vaccinated against the virus on Monday using the AstraZeneca jab.

Vietnam has recorded 2,509 coronavirus cases as of Sunday morning, including 1,584 local infections and 35 virus-related fatalities, according to the Ministry of Health’s data.

Border jumpers were among the confirmed transmissions.

The dead had suffered from comorbid medical problems, including 31 in Da Nang, three in Quang Nam Province, and one in Quang Tri Province.

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