HCMC – Although an employee of the Tan Son Nhat International Airport has been found to be infected with Covid-19, the airport must not be locked down as the lockdown of the airport can paralyze travels in the whole country, said Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam.
Attending an online meeting with authorities of HCMC and Binh Duong on February 6 on the case in the Tan Son Nhat International Airport and another patient in Binh Duong, who is a younger brother of this patient in HCMC, the deputy prime minister asked HCMC to step up the Covid-19 test-and-trace work and ensure the normal operation of the airport, the local media reported.
Dam praised the two localities for swiftly tracing those in close contact with the patients.
At the meeting, Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen asked the two localities to track those having close contact with these two cases since January 31 to prevent further community spread.
In addition, the management of the Tan Son Nhat International Airport must coordinate with the HCMC Center for Disease Control to conduct Covid-19 tests for the remaining 1,000 employees of the airport.
He said the Van Don International Airport has been closed but the Tan Son Nhat International Airport must not be closed. Therefore, HCMC must prevent and control the pandemic effectively so as not to affect the economic development.
A representative of the Southern Airports Authority said the authority had no plan to propose a closure of the airport as the employee infected with Covid-19 had not had contact with air passengers and come to the airport over the past few days.
HCMC had found 57 people in close contact with the two patients. They are being quarantined and their testing results have yet to be produced.
Regarding the 1,883rd patient, a notary flying from Hanoi to HCMC and flying back to Hanoi on January 29, 112 people were found to have close contact with him. Of them, the testing results of 110 people are negative, while the results of two others have yet to be worked out.
