Vietnam wants Chinese employees quarantined amid coronavirus fear

A health official sprays disinfectant at the HCM City University of Transport. — VN

HO CHI MINH (Vietnam News/ANN): Amid concerns over the spread of novel coronavirus, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs has told a number of firms that 1,079 foreign workers who recently travelled to China and returned to HCM City to work after the Tết (Lunar New Year) holiday must be quarantined.

The department asked the HCM City Export Processing Zone and Industrial Park and Authority (HEPZA) and the management board of Saigon Hi-Tech Park to work quickly with local authorities to send any worker who has returned from the city of Wuhan and Hubei Province in China to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in HCM City for quarantine and treatment, said Lê Minh Tấn, director of the department.

Foreign workers who have returned from travelling to other cities and provinces in China are required to "self-quarantine" for 14 days in the basement of their homes, apartments, hotels or other lodgings.