Vietnam Faces New Wave of COVID-19 Infections

Vietnam's government said Wednesday it is stepping up measures against a sudden wave of coronavirus infections in the country. The latest outbreak came after 100 days without any reported cases of COVID-19.

At the government's daily COVID-19 meeting, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said "The outbreak this time has a high risk of spreading to other big cities and provinces around Da Nang."

Over the past five days, officials confirmed 34 new cases of infections coming from the popular beach city of Da Nang. They included an American who had been in Da Nang and his partner. The two are now hospitalized in Ho Chi Minh City. A woman in the central highland¹ area of Dak Lak also tested positive for the coronavirus. She had worked at Da Nang Hospital.

In the capital city of Hanoi, health officials closed a restaurant for disinfection after a worker tested positive for the coronavirus. The man had recently returned from Da Nang.

The government estimates that tens of thousands of tourists left Da Nang after the outbreak. They included 18,000 who returned to Ho Chi Minh City, the business center of the country.

The government on Tuesday suspended all flights to and from Da Nang for 15 days. The prime minister told state-broadcaster VTV that Da Nang must go under "strict lockdown" and other popular cities had to be more watchful².

With over 95 million people, Vietnam had managed to keep its coronavirus infections to about 450 cases. It did this with an aggressive program of quarantine and contact-tracing. Vietnam is the most populous³ country in the world to have recorded no deaths from the virus. And until now, the country reported no local infections for more than three months.

The source of the new COVID-19 infection in Da Nang remains⁴ unclear. But Vietnamese scientists have said this strain of coronavirus appeared to be more infectious than the earlier one. They said it is similar to the one found in Bangladesh, Britain and Ireland.

The government has not officially linked the new cases to illegal immigration. But Prime Minister Phuc has ordered police to restrict illegal entries. And state media on Sunday said police in Da Nang had arrested a 42-year-old Chinese man. He was suspected of smuggling⁵ people across the border from China.

Adam McCarty is chief economist⁶ with Mekong Economics in Hanoi. He told VOA, "It could be another outbreak, and it's really sort of scared the Vietnamese, because they thought they'd gotten through it all, but as the rest of the world discovered, this thing spreads much quicker than you think."

Jack⁷ Nguyen is a partner with the firm Mazars in Ho Chi Minh City. He said, "We're hoping it doesn't spread out, because if it does, they'll do another lockdown, and it's going to impact business hard."

Nguyen Thi Kieu Trinh and her family just cancelled their planned vacation in Phu Quoc Island. She told the website VNExpress "I would rather lose the money than risk getting infected on a plane or at the airport. Even staying in Hanoi makes me nervous."

Tay Bac, a popular travel agency in Ho Chi Minh City, said that over 20,000 Vietnamese have canceled their summer vacations, as of July 26. And some even canceled tours during the month of September.

I'm Jonathan Evans.

Words in This Story

outbreak –n. the sudden appearance of an infectious disease or conflict

test positive –v. to have a medical test find evidence of a disease

lockdown –n. a situation in which people are told to stay in their homes for security reasons

quarantine –n. keeping a person apart from others in an effort to stop the spread of an infectious disease

strain –n. one of several kinds of closely related organisms

smuggling –n. to move people from one country to another illegally or secretly

1 highland   

n.(pl.)高地，山地

参考例句：

• The highland game is part of Scotland's cultural heritage.苏格兰高地游戏是苏格兰文化遗产的一部分。
• The highland forests where few hunters venture have long been the bear's sanctuary.这片只有少数猎人涉险的高山森林，一直都是黑熊的避难所。

2 watchful   

adj.注意的，警惕的

参考例句：

• The children played under the watchful eye of their father.孩子们在父亲的小心照看下玩耍。
• It is important that health organizations remain watchful.卫生组织保持警惕是极为重要的。

3 populous   

adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的

参考例句：

• London is the most populous area of Britain.伦敦是英国人口最稠密的地区。
• China is the most populous developing country in the world.中国是世界上人口最多的发展中国家。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 smuggling   

n.走私

参考例句：

• Some claimed that the docker's union fronted for the smuggling ring.某些人声称码头工人工会是走私集团的掩护所。
• The evidence pointed to the existence of an international smuggling network.证据表明很可能有一个国际走私网络存在。

6 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

7 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。