Health expert proposes home quarantine of F1

Amid rising infections nationwide, local health expert has proposed home quarantine to people having direct contacts with confirmed coronavirus cases (F1), instead of putting them under centralized quarantine.

Associate Prof. Tran Dac Phu, senior advisor to the Vietnam Public Health Emergency Operations Center (PHEOC), at a meeting on May 24. Photo: VNA

Associate Prof. Tran Dac Phu, senior advisor to the Vietnam Public Health Emergency Operations Center (PHEOC), said the measure could be used for low-risk F1.

"However, those under home quarantine will subject to tightened supervision", the health professional said at a meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam in Hanoi on May 24.

He said Vietnam needs to be flexible in quarantine rules [that all F1 are put in quarantine centers] in the face that the number of F1 amounts to dozens of thousands in two hotspots of Bac Giang and Bac Ninh.

Bac Giang province has so far reported 980 infections and 11,500 F1 while Bac Ninh has 474 cases with around 37,000 F1 and F2.

Phu gave explanation to high-risk and low-risk F1, saying that the first kind includes those of contact without masking within two meters in air-conditioned space.

“Epidemiologists need to cooperate with Bac Giang and Bac Ninh to classify F1 to impose different levels of isolation [at home or in quarantine centers],” Phu said.

For that reason, Deputy PM Dam asked the Ministry of Health to issue new quarantine regulations for industrial parks in Bac Giang and Bac Ninh in the short term and for the whole nation after effective trial.

Bac Giang has suspended four industrial parks with more than 60,000 workers under quarantine.

Meanwhile, Bac Ninh is putting more than 70,000 people on lockdown. Bac Ninh is located 10 industrial parks with more than 400,000 workers, including those working for Samsung Electronics Vietnam (SEV) and its vendors.

Testing at a company in Bac Giang province. Photo: VOV