7,000 Vietnamese returning to Ho Chi Minh city from South Korea

The Vietnam’s largest city received over 6,800 people from South Korea between February 23 and 29. As of Saturday almost 300 people were quarantined at a field hospital in the outlying Cu Chi District and other facilities with another 52 isolated at home.

The largest city in the country is also setting up medical teams.

According to a report by VNExpress, the city plans to build a field hospital near Tan Son Nhat International Airport to check 7,000 Vietnamese returning from South Korea for coronavirus infection.

City chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong revealed the plan at a meeting on Saturday.

The returning people, mostly from southern Vietnam, are among 22,000 Vietnamese working in South Korea, where the number of confirmed cases is second only to China.

The South Korean government has declared a red alert, its highest level of alarm, after over 3,500 people were diagnosed with coronavirus as of Sunday and 17 have died.

A Vietnamese living in South Korea’s Daegu, the main affected area, is infected with the novel coronavirus.

HCMC also plans to use the campus of the Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City in Thu Duc District as a field hospital with a capacity to quarantine 40,000 people if the academic break continues.

Reporting by Manh Tung @ VNExpress