Vietnam warns of further Covid-19 outbreaks from illegal entrants

"The risk of Covid-19 transmission from outside the country is very high," Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said Tuesday at an online conference to discuss stepping up measures against the Covid-19 pandemic in the "new normal" period., Report says, citing TASS.

With its population of 96 million, Vietnam has gone 83 days without new community transmissions even as the pandemic situation worsens in other places. Many European countries are re-imposing lockdowns to contain recent Covid-19 outbreaks."

The population of infected patients in other countries is very high, so preventing Covid-19 infections has become much more difficult. If the Vietnamese health system was placed in the same context as those countries, it would be difficult for us to meet the treatment needs," Long stressed.

The rising number of illegal entrants is posing a significant threat to the country's anti-Covid-19 fight, Long said.

So far this year, over 20,000 people have illegally entered the country.