Nguyen Tang, chairman of Dong Ha Town People’s Committee in the province, on Monday said the three, aged 35-53, were drivers who had traveled from a border gate in Dakrong District to an industrial complex in Dong Ha.

On April 21, they were doing their usual jobs, exchanging goods and switching vehicles entering from Laos. During the process, however, they made contact with a person who was later identified as a coronavirus case in Laos, said Tang.

The three have now been quarantined at the Quang Tri Technical College, showing no symptoms of fever, coughing or breathing difficulties. Those that had come in close contact with the drivers have been requested to isolate themselves at home.

Quang Tri has two border gates with Laos. For goods to be exchanged, transport vehicles must exchange drivers at the border.

Since February, Quang Tri border guards have installed 84 monitoring stations with around 405 personnel to keep watch over 179 kilometers of the Vietnam-Laos border.

Within last Friday and Saturday alone, Quang Tri border guards had arrested nine illegal entrants from Laos.

Laos, which reported only a small number of cases from the pandemic last year, is undergoing a surge, jumping from 58 cases to 323 in less than a week.

Its former capital city Luang Prabang has been locked down starting Sunday, just three days after capital Vientianne entered lockdown in an effort to contain the new Covid wave.