Passengers at the domestic terminal at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCM City ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday. (Photo: VNA)Accordingto the HCM City Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as ofFebruary 14, some 200 samples had been taken each day for testing ona random basis at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCM City.
Themove is part of the city’s effort to monitor community transmission cases. Fourhospitals, including Nguyen Tri Phuong, Ear Nose and Throat, Hung Vuong, andTraditional Medicine, have participated in the screening.
SinceFebruary 11, the city has also tested people considered at high-risk ofcontracting the virus at bus stations, wet markets and some rental housingunits in order to monitor the risk in the community.
Inaddition, the HCM City CDC has been conducting testing at hospitalsacross districts since September 15.
Toensure safety for passengers at Tan Son Nhat, airport staff must betested one day before their working shifts.
Morethan 1,600 families of employees of the Vietnam Airport Ground ServicesCompany Limited (VIAGS) have also been asked to test, as ofFebruary 10.
Themain cluster of cases at the airport was related to VIAGS.
Source of infection
Accordingto the HCM City-based Hospital for Tropical Diseases, the virus strain (A.23.1)associated with the Tan Son Nhat airport outbreak was first found inthe African country of Rwanda in late October.
Thisis the first time that the Rwanda variant has appeared in Vietnam andSoutheast Asia. It is not the highly contagious UK variant (B.1.1.7) orthe variant detected in South Africa.
TheRwanda variant has been discovered in a few other countries such as theUS, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Australia, and several countries in Europe,including the UK and Denmark. However, no “abnormal developments” havebeen reported in those countries.
Basedon an analysis, experts believe the Rwanda variant is likely tohave infected the staff at Tan Son Nhat airport through cargo flights.
Dr.Phan Trong Lan, Director of the HCM City Pasteur Institute, said: “The mostlikely hypothesis is that the strain originated from cargo flights fromthe United Arab Emirates.”
Cargo crewmembers are not subject to quarantine and testing because they are not allowedto get off the plane, he added.
Duringthis period, flights from the United Arab Emirates arriving at the Tan SonNhat airport were possibly the source of infection for the loadingstaff on the ground, who had contact with aircraft crew members.
Lannoted, however, that the risk of infection from outside the airport cannotbe ruled out, but it is unlikely to be the source.
Accordingto the HCM City CDC’s initial assessment, most of the patients related tothe Tan Son Nhat outbreak had no symptoms or very mild symptoms. Many caseshave tested negative quickly after a few days of treatment athospitals.
Thecentre said it would work with experts to collect data on epidemiology,clinical signs, antigens, antibody test results, and sequencing genes to learnfurther about the cases.
Sincethe first case was detected at the airport, the city has recorded 36COVID-19 cases as of February 16, including 10 patients who are loadingstaff at the Tan Son Nhat airport and 26 cases who are family members of theloading staff.
Cityauthorities have imposed a strict lockdown on areas that are related to thecases. All non-essential services and entertainment, and cultural and sportsactivities have been suspended until further notice.
“Theinfection chain at Tan Son Nhat hotspot has basically beencontained,” according to the HCM City CDC.
Thecity is continuing to conduct extensive screening in the community to assessthe risk of disease./.
VNA
