A Vietnam Airlines flight taking repatriated Vietnamese from Taiwan back to Việt Nam on May 29. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — More than 340 Vietnamese citizens in Singapore arrived at Cần Thơ International Airport on a repatriation flight on Sunday.

Passengers on the flight, organised by Vietnamese authorities, the country’s embassy in Singapore, national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines and relevant agencies of Singapore, included those under the age of 18, elderly people, persons with illnesses, labourers with expired contracts, and others with expired visas stranded in Singapore due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Vietnamese Embassy sent staff members to assist the citizens to complete procedures before their plane took off.

Under Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s direction, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Transport, domestic agencies and Việt Nam’s overseas representative bodies have arranged many flights to bring Vietnamese home.

After landing, all people on board received heath examinations and were put in quarantine in line with regulations.

Based on the pandemic’s developments in the country and the world, citizens’ aspirations and local quarantine capacity, more flights are set to be conducted to repatriate Vietnamese citizens.

Another milestone reached

Việt Nam racked up its 45th consecutive day without community spread of the coronavirus on Sunday, with only one imported positive case recorded a day earlier.

By 6pm on Sunday, Việt Nam has a total of 328 cases, with 188 imported, which were all quarantined immediately. Of those, 279 have recovered while no deaths have been recorded.

The 328th case was a one-year-old baby returning from Russia, reported the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control on Saturday morning.

The child, residing in Thanh Hoá Province, landed at Vân Đồn International Airport in northern Quảng Ninh Province on Vietnam Airlines flight VN0062 on May 13.

He had close contact with the 314th patient on the same flight.

He was taken to a quarantine centre in northern Hải Dương Province and tested positive for the virus on May 28 by the province's Centre for Disease Control and then by the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology on May 29.

He is being treated at the provincial Hospital for Tropical Disease. 

The new case brought the total number of infections onboard flight VN0062 to 34. All passengers on the flight were quarantined upon arrival. — VNS