Nghe An tightens control and quarantines workers returning from epidemic areas

Understand the number of workers working abroad

According to statistics from the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs of Cua Lo town, there are currently more than 2,000 workers working abroad in the town, of which 240 workers whose contracts have expired are residing illegally in Korea. However, these statistics are considered incomplete, as in Nghi Hai ward alone, more than 80% of the 1,700 workers working in Korea are illegal residents.

Mr. Tran Van Huong - Vice Chairman of Nghi Hai Ward People's Committee said: "There are many workers who have been away for 7-10 years, their labor contracts have expired for a long time but have no intention of returning, because working there gives high income, if they return they will not be able to go anymore. But now there is an epidemic in Korea so they have changed their mind."

According to Mr. Tran Thanh Minh - Head of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs of Cua Lo Town, since the Covid-19 epidemic, Cua Lo has received 24 workers returning from South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan, but not from the epidemic areas, and has organized quarantine at private homes; currently, 17 cases have completed the quarantine period.

In Quynh Luu district, according to the report of the district's Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, from February 5 to March 5, 89 exported workers returned home, including 35 from South Korea, 11 from Japan, 26 from China, 16 from Taiwan and 1 from Singapore. These workers do not live or work in the Covid-19 epidemic areas, so they are required to quarantine and monitor at home. Quynh Luu District Medical Center also coordinated with communes and towns to spray disinfectant in residential areas where these people live.

Up to now, Quynh Luu district is isolating 5 cases returning from Korea and China at the district Preventive Medicine Center; monitoring at home for 24 cases returning from epidemic areas and people in contact with people returning from epidemic areas. Mr. Nguyen Van Uoc - Chairman of Tien Thuy Commune People's Committee said that the locality has 189 workers working in Korea and Japan. Currently, 10 cases have returned home and there will be more workers returning soon. Therefore, we have also assigned policy officers to coordinate with villages and hamlets to monitor and manage at home.

Quynh Luu medical staff check people's health.

Not only controlling workers who have returned to their locality from epidemic areas, Quynh Luu district also focuses on reviewing the list of local workers who have gone to work in epidemic areas and have not returned. According to statistics, Quynh Luu district has more than 2,500 workers working in Korea and Japan. However, this is only a list of legal workers working under fixed-term contracts, while the district does not know exactly the number of workers who go through unofficial or illegal "channels" such as visiting relatives, traveling, trading, etc.

Mr. Hoang Van Bo - Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district said: "Determining the number of workers going to work informally in China and South Korea is one of the sources of risk of spreading the epidemic, the district has directed communes and towns to strengthen the monitoring of workers returning from epidemic areas, especially calling for the support of the people in voluntarily complying with the regulations of the Ministry of Health on disease prevention".

Drastic measures of isolation and self-isolation

Up to this point, the Government has issued mandatory health declarations for citizens, so people returning from epidemic areas who have completed their quarantine period must continue to make health declarations if they have suspected symptoms of Covid-19 infection.

As of the evening of March 12, Nghe An has a total of 823 cases being quarantined and monitored to prevent the Covid-19 epidemic. Recently, Nghe An has also taken samples of 31 cases and sent them to the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology for testing, the results were all negative for Covid-19. Among them, there is one case of a worker in Japan who has symptoms of cough and fever and is being quarantined after the first negative result. However, Dr. Nguyen Xuan Hong - Deputy Director of the Department of Health said that the risk of an epidemic in Nghe An is very high.

Provincial leaders inspect epidemic prevention plans at medical facilities. Photo courtesy of Duc Anh

In the context of Covid-19 epidemic prevention in our country entering a new phase, mandatory health declaration is considered an important method; if there is even a slight omission or if citizens returning from abroad do not honestly declare their health indicators, it will greatly affect the epidemic prevention work.

Mr. Tran Thanh Minh - Head of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs of Cua Lo Town said: "Just about 2 weeks ago, citizens who returned from countries with epidemics, even though they were not quarantined at the airport, were immediately quarantined when they returned to our locality. During that process, local health officials strictly monitored the health status of citizens. However, we should now quarantine all citizens returning from abroad right at the airport, because the risk of spreading if there is an infected case is very high."

In Quynh Luu district, the locality has regularly carried out propaganda work for people to proactively prevent the epidemic, especially for families with relatives working abroad. "For workers who have not returned home, the district assigned units and local authorities to closely monitor and encourage families to immediately report to the authorities if they have relatives returning from countries with epidemics," said Mr. Hoang Van Bo - Chairman of Quynh Luu District People's Committee.

Nghi Loc district has also promptly taken steps to screen and quarantine workers returning from abroad. Mr. Hoang Van Luong - Head of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs said: "Regardless of China, Korea, or Japan, workers returning from countries such as Taiwan, Arabia..., we all quarantine them as soon as they arrive in the locality, and so far no one has shown signs of cough or fever."

Prepare centralized quarantine plan for workers returning from abroad. Photo: Document

Nghe An currently has 3,870 workers working legally in Korea under the Foreign Employment Permit Program (EPS), of which 428 are working in two epidemic provinces. The number of workers whose contracts expired and who had to return home before May 2020 was 305, and by the end of May 2020 was 1,465; the number of workers residing illegally was 2,079. "Currently, the authorities have not recorded any cases of infection in Korea who are from Nghe An," said Mr. Tran Phi Hung - Head of the Department of Safety, Employment and Labor Export, Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs of the province.