28-year-old Le Van Tri received a five year sentence in prison, after being found guilty of spreading the coronavirus. For the Vietnam court that handed down its sentence, the man last July violated the strict laws implemented against the pandemic in Ho Chi Minh City, which was then undergoing a mandatory 21-day quarantine.
The authorities considered that Le Van Tri “spread” the Covid-19 leaving Ho Chi Minh, currently one of the main sources of coronavirus in the country. Specifically, they maintain that as a result of their actions, eight people were infected, one of whom died.
Thanks to its early response, Vietnam had managed to keep the pandemic under control. As of April this year, it had recorded 35 deaths in total.
However, the latest outbreak of Delta variants is causing havoc in the Asian country, especially in Ho Chi Minh, its most populated city. There they face harsh confinement, with the absolute prohibition of residents from leaving their homes, since 23 August.
Despite the strict resolutions, the wave remains above 10,000 daily cases and since the beginning of the pandemic it accumulates more than half a million infections and more than 13,000 deaths.
Amid the outbreak, traffic dropped in Ho Chi Minh City. Reuters photo
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh acknowledged last week that confinements cannot be maintained forever due to the economic problems it generates. He also proposed that Vietnam change its strategy of total elimination of the virus to that of trying to coexist with the least harmful possible.
Meanwhile, the vaccination campaign is progressing slowly and just 3 percent of the 97 million Vietnamese have received the full guideline, while about 18 percent have the first dose.
An antecedent
In March this year, another court sentenced Duong Tan Hau, a 29-year-old flight attendant for the state airline Vietnam Airlines, to two years in prison, for a situation similar to that of Le Van Tri.
He found him guilty of violating anti-pandemic regulations and skipping quarantine upon returning from Japan. In his case, Justice found him responsible for infecting three people with Covid.
Duong Tan Hau received a similar sentence in March, but his sentence was suspended. Reuters photo
They argued that this man did not perform preventive isolation when he returned to his country, that he visited bars and restaurants and that he even attended his English classes during that period.
Anyway, the flight attendant avoided going to prison because his sentence was suspended.
With information from EFE.
DB
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