80k people to be evacuated from Vietnam city after 15 test COVID-19 positive

Hanoi, July 28: Vietnamese govt has ordered the evacuation of 80,000 people from the country's coastal city, Danang after three residents have tested positive for coronavirus.

The evacuation to take four days and involve flights chartered to 11 Vietnamese cities.

Vietnam has been praised for its pandemic response after reporting just 400 cases and no deaths. The country went back on high alert at the weekend after it confirmed its first infection since April, all in the popular tourism destination of Danang.

Foreign tourists are barred from entering the nation but there has been a surge of domestic travel as the take advantage of discounted flights and hotel deals.

An aggressive and widespread testing regime, plus a strict quarantine had helped the southeast Asian country almost eradicate Covid-19 within its borders, but the authorities are now grappling with its first internal infections for months.

It is not clear if the new Danang cases are connected to people people entering Vietnam secretly as prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has also ordered police to step up a crackdown on illegal immigration.

On Monday, the government announced more than 1,500 people had been illegally caught while crossing the border from China into Ha Giang province in Vietnam.