Medical workers from the Khánh Hoà Province International Centre for Disease Control and Prevention sterilise an airplane at Cam Ranh International Airport. — VNA/VNS Photo Phan Sáu

HÀ NỘI — More than a hundred Vietnamese nationals returning from COVID-19-hit areas in South Korea have been quarantined in Hà Nội, Quảng Trị and Bình Dương.

They have all been asked to spend two weeks in isolation.

Hà Nội Capital High Command on Tuesday and Wednesday received 137 Vietnamese people from infected areas and seven South Korean citizens at a military school in Sơn Tây Town.

Leaders in Khánh Hoà Province said on Thursday they might not have enough facilities to quarantine all Vietnamese workers returning from South Korea.

The province was given the all-clear for COVID-19 by the Ministry of Health on Wednesday.

Doctor Nguyễn Hoa Hội, director of the International Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said the number of people returning to Cam Ranh International Airport had soared since last Sunday.

The provincial Hospital of Tropical Diseases is now monitoring 16 cases, including 12 Vietnamese and four South Korean nationals.

Cam Ranh Airport is capable of screening and quarantining up to 200 people.

Hội said if all passengers from South Korea, even uninfected-areas, were isolated, it would be difficult for the local healthcare sector to handle.

The central province of Quảng Trị reported nine people from South Korea, two of whom used to live in the epicentre Daegu, had returned.

Two women, who had failed to notify local authorities of their travel history, ended up in a separate quarantine areas at the province’s Hospital of Lung Diseases with 16 others who were said to have had close contact with them.

Those who were not from infected areas have been isolated at home and received medical examinations twice a day.

According to Quảng Trị's Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, there were nearly 900 local people working in South Korea. The numbers in Japan and China were 3,540 and 59, respectively. As cases soar, the department has stopped sending workers to South Korea and Japan.

As of Thursday, Việt Nam had 92 suspected cases in quarantine. — VNS