Hanoi’s Largest Hospital Locked Down on Virus Outbreak Fears
A health worker checks temperatures of visitors at the entrance of Bach Mai hospital in Hanoi on March 24.
Photographer: Nhac Nguyen/AFP via Getty Images
Vietnam officials ordered one of the nation’s largest medical centers to be locked down and demanded thousands of employees and people who recently visited Hanoi’s Bach Mai Hospital be tested for Covid-19 after nurses and food workers contracted the disease.
The Southeast Asian country, which has 179 confirmed cases and no reported deaths from the virus, has tied most recent infections to people arriving from Europe and other countries. The government, which is aggressively isolating foreigners and Vietnamese citizens entering the country from abroad, has quarantined or placed under monitoring 75,085 people, according to the Ministry of Health. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has agreed to suspend all inbound international passenger flights to Vietnam with no time frame provided. Domestic flights and travel have been restricted and many businesses across the country have closed.