HCMC – As many as 25 people linked to the Revival Ekklesia Mission, a religious sect in HCMC’s Go Vap District, have been found to be diagnosed with Covid-19, according to the municipal Center for Disease control (HCDC).
Of the total, 19 people are members of the religious sect, three were in close contact with a Covid-19 patient and three work in the same building with a Covid-19 patient in Ward 10, Phu Nhuan District, the local media reported.
In the evening of May 26, three members of the religious sect came to Gia Dinh Hospital in Binh Thanh District for medical checkups and tested positive for Covid-19. They included a man and his wife living in Thanh Loc Ward, District 12, and a woman residing in Thoi Tam Thon Commune, Hoc Mon District and working in Phu Nhuan District.
By 7 a.m. this morning, May 27, 10 others were also found to catch the virus, including a chef of Sheraton Hotel in District 1 and five members of a family in Go Vap District.
The city has traced people in close contact with these cases and put 10 areas, including six in Hoc Mon, and one each in districts 12, Tan Phu, Go Vap and Phu Nhuan, under lockdown.
HCDC asked local residents to be on high alert as the transmission speed of the coronavirus from this religious sect is high. Those who are members or have contact with members of the religious sect must make health declarations immediately.
At an urgent meeting between the municipal steering committee for Covid-19 infection prevention and control and districts, Nguyen Tan Binh, director of the HCMC Department of Health, said F0 and F1 cases linked to the religious sect had been found in 16 districts in the city.
The city has traced 67 F1 cases and 23 of them have tested negative for the virus. The results of 44 other samples have yet to be worked out.
Among the 336 F2 cases, 326 people have tested negative, Binh added.
He proposed suspending all religious events instead of allowing those gathering fewer 20 people.
In addition to nonessential services that the city had suspended earlier, beauty care centers should be also closed. Gatherings of over 10 people in public places should be banned as well, Binh suggested.
