National flag carrier Vietnam Airlines has announced it will conduct three flights on August 12-13 to return more than 700 out of 1,695 tourists left stranded in Da Nang due to COVID-19 back to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

A350 aircraft is utilized to bring home stranded visitors from coronavirus-hit Da Nang 

The airline said it will utilise the Airbus A350 wide-body aircraft, one of the airline’s largest and most modern aircraft, to transport the stranded holidaymakers.

Two of the flights are expected to carry more than 400 people back to Hanoi on August 12, while a further flight is to be arranged to take over 300 people back to Ho Chi Minh City.

In order to prevent the further spread of the epidemic, all flights will have to abide by stringent COVID-19 prevention and control measures, with crew members and passengers being equipped with protective suites and having their body temperature checked ahead of departure.

Meanwhile, low-cost airline VietJet Air said it has arranged four flights on August 13-14 to evacuate the stranded tourists in Da Nang.

As many as 1,695 tourists, including many children, have been left stuck in Da Nang after the central city implemented social distancing measures on July 26 to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Tens of thousands of other holidaymakers had left Da Nang before the social distancing order took effect.

Da Nang is currently the epicenter of the country’s latest coronavirus outbreak. It has confirmed nearly 300 new COVID-19 patients in the community since the first such case was detected on July 25.