HANOI (Reuters) – The airport in the central Vietnamese resort town of Danang filled up on Monday after three residents tested positive for the coronavirus and began evacuating 80,000 people.
The Southeast Asian country is on high alert after authorities confirmed the community’s first infections since Saturday, and three other cases on Sunday, all in or around Danang.
Another 11 cases linked to a Danang hospital were reported on Monday night.
Evacuations of most local tourists will take at least four days with national airlines operating approximately 100 daily flights from Danang to 11 Vietnamese cities, the government said.
Vietnam has also reintroduced measures of social distancing in Danang.
Nguyen Tien Nam, an English teacher based in Ho Chi Minh City, said he had taken the last flight from Danang on Sunday night.
“Everyone was trying to get out of town on Sunday,” Nam said. “Everyone was telling me that I should get out as soon as possible.”
By imposing strict quarantine measures and conducting an aggressive testing program during the pandemic, Vietnam has kept its reported infection count at 431, with no deaths.
Vietnam is still closed to foreign tourism, but there has been an increase in domestic travelers looking to take advantage of discounted flights and vacation packages to local resorts.
Those returning from Danang to other parts of the country would have to be quarantined in their homes for 14 days, the health ministry said.
Genome analysis by scientists showed that the coronavirus strain found in Danang had not previously been detected in the country, the Vietnamese health minister said, according to state broadcaster VTV.
The strain, which had been found in Bangladesh, Britain and Ireland, appeared to be more contagious than other strains detected in Vietnam, VTV said.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc ordered the police to intensify the crackdown on illegal immigration.
State media said Sunday that police in Danang had arrested a 42-year-old Chinese man who he said was the head of a criminal group that helps people enter Vietnam illegally from China.
Authorities have not officially linked the new cases in Danang to illegal immigration.
The government said that authorities in the Ha Giang province, which borders China, had trapped more than 1,500 people who had been illegally crossing into the province since May.
Most of those captured were Vietnamese citizens, the government said, and have since been quarantined.
Vietnam’s benchmark stock index closed 5.3% on Monday at 785.17, the lowest since May 6, extending a decline of 3.2% on Friday.
Reports from Khanh Vu and Phuong Nguyen; Additional reports from Yi Shu Ng in Singapore; Written by James Pearson; Editing by Martin Petty and Ed Osmond
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