A room converted to a rest area for workers at Foster Electronics Co., Ltd In Bình Dương Province. VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY — Production facilities and enterprises that record COVID-19 cases have been asked to quarantine the patients on-site and report to health authorities, a Ministry of Health working group said Wednesday. 

According to the working group, F0 cases should be quarantined immediately and must be reported to health authorities. The authorities will transfer the cases to centralised quarantine sites and disinfect the facilities where necessary.

The working group on Wednesday visited Linh Trung Processing Zone in Thủ Đức City (HCM City) which reported 87 infection cases between July 15 and 19. 

These cases were taken to isolation centres and the business suspended operations.

Associate Professor Nguyễn Văn Sơn, deputy director of the National Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health and a member of the working group, ordered the business to quarantine all infected cases and those having direct contact with them.

Sơn said the infection risk remains high with factory workers living and eating together.

“The company must immediately ask workers to strictly follow 5K and stay where they are and not cause confusion or worry among workers,” he said.

A representative of Thủ Đức City’s medical centre said the company must test F1 and F2 cases one more time. If anyone tests negative, they can self-quarantine at home.

A number of other companies at Linh Trung Processing Zone have reported infections. F1 cases are being quarantined in private rooms and regularly tested.

Sơn advised the processing zone’s management board to continue to operate as infection cases have been isolated.

At companies where workers travel to work by car, Sơn said the managers had to strictly control their schedules and ensure 5K protocols were followed.

The company must conduct regular tests and enact countermeasures when infection cases are detected, he said. — VNS