Swartkops border control

/ January 22, 2021

Vietnam to maintain strict control of foreign arrivals ahead of Tet

The Hanoitimes - Vietnam has decided to tighten regulations regarding foreign arrivals and their quarantine period. Vietnam will tighten foreign arrivals and toughen up border control measures to prevent illegal entry ahead of Tet holiday. The order was made by the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control at a meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam on January 21. The committee announced the completion of a streamlined information system to supervise the medical status of upcoming arrivals from pandemic-stricken countries. Under the new system, overseas citizens will fill out a health declaration at the moment they sign up for repatriation flights and provide an address of their stay after finishing quarantine. Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam presides over a meeting of the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control. Photo: Dinh Nam The foreigners include experts, investors, business managers, skilled workers and their family members, Mr. Dam said. He requested that concentrated quarantine sites must strictly comply with instructions of the Ministry of Health and those who violate quarantine rules must be strictly fined. The deputy prime minister also asked localities to strengthen Covid-19 prevention and control measures and strictly enforce the measures ahead of and during the Lunar New Year celebrations. Localities across the country were asked to contact families of the returnees to update their health conditions and quarantine them if necessary, Mr. Dam added. At the meeting, the Ministry of Health called for continuing the consistent strategy of outbreak prevention, detection, quarantining, zoning off, stamping out, and effective treatment. Hoang Minh Duc, the deputy head of the General Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health, said many countries have maintained strong measures to curb the spread of coronavirus and its variants. …

/ February 28, 2021

Vietnamese province’s quick response helps minimize risk of COVID-19 spread from border jumpers

Authorities in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap have taken prompt and assertive measures to contain the risk of COVID-19 spread from two border jumpers recently. On the afternoon of February 23, two Vietnamese women left Phnom Penh and entered Vietnamese illegally via an illicit racket's service. By 9:00 pm the same day, they had made it to Sa Rai Town, located in Tan Hong District, Dong Thap, and stayed at a local hotel. The two border jumpers were unaware they had been detected by local residents, who later reported the case to police’s quick response team. Officers arrived at the hotel within the next hour, but only one of the two women was at the venue. She was brought to a collective quarantine facility and was confirmed as the country’s COVID-19 patient No. 2,424 on February 26. Meanwhile, the other woman had already got on a long-haul coach to travel to Ho Chi Minh City. The coach operator was quickly informed of the case, and the driver was directed to turn the vehicle around. She was then taken to a centralized quarantine center and had her samples collected for COVID-19 testing. Her test result came back negative for the novel coronavirus. A quick response team for COVID-19 prevention and control holds a meeting in Dong Thap Province, Vietnam. Photo: Thai Thuan / Tuoi Tre “Thanks to the rapid response, the two women had not been able to travel to other places, while the number of their direct contacts was limited," said Doan Tan Buu, vice-chairman of the Dong Thap People’s Committee, who is also deputy head of the provincial steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and control. "The risk of the virus spread was therefore minimized.” The province has established many quick response teams consisting of police officers and health workers to fight against the pandemic. Aside from the effort of these quick response teams, which work around the clock, local residents also play a very important role in rapidly …

/ March 7, 2021

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 …