Approximately 20 foreign oil and gas experts traveling to the country on a specifically chartered flight on April 28 are set to go into quarantine in a hotel, stated the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control during a meeting on April 27.

The Department of Health in Ho Chi Minh City will co-ordinate efforts with Tan Son Nhat International Airport to bring the group to a hotel to start their period of isolation. Moreover, all quarantine areas as of April 28 which have capacity must be ready to operate again and receive cases as they arrive in the country.

This comes after crew members and passengers to the city on April 27 were required to conduct medical declarations and have their body temperature measured before getting on various flights and trains. 

This includes eight international flights involving a total of 48 crew members, excluding passengers, in addition to 52 domestic flights with a total of 4,835 passengers, along with three trains carrying 1,223 passengers.

At present, the city has so far recorded 13 novel coronavirus cases that have posted negative results in all three of their post-discharge tests. Of the total two of the cases have subsequently come back positive after being discharged for five days whilst a further 16 others are poised to have their samples taken for the virus in the near future, according to Nguyen Tan Binh, director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health.

Moreover, the southern city is expected to welcome further foreign experts from major enterprises that do business in the nation in mid-May. Therefore, it is necessary to devise a detailed plan aimed at epidemic prevention in line with regulations set out by the health sector in an attempt to facilitate the operations of firms while also avoiding the risk of spreading the disease among the wider community, Binh noted.