Six people from Sôn Lôi came back from a business trip to Wuhan with the virus. They and their municipality were quarantined from 13 February to 4 March. Now the lockdown has been lifted.
Hanoi (AsiaNews) – Some members of Hữu Bằng parish are happy to have overcome the coronavirus. “We are very happy that we are no longer in quarantine,” they said last Wednesday. “The Wuhan pneumonia prevention model has performed well.”
On 15 November 2019, eight Vietnamese employees of the Nihon Company went to Wuhan for a two-month training course. One of the workers was from Thanh Hóa province and seven from the Sơn Lôi municipality in Vĩnh Phúc province. They returned to Vietnam on 17 January on a Southern China Airlines flight via Hanoi's Nội Bai airport.
After returning home, Vietnam’s Health Ministry reported that six of them had been infected with the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19).
The people involved live in Sơn Lôi, a municipality in Bình Xuyên district, Vĩnh Phúc province, which provincial authorities locked down from 13 February to 4 March (pictured).
The town has a population of about 10,000, including 1,300 Catholics who live in two small locations, Bá Cầu and Ngọc Bảo, both part of Hữu Bằng parish.
“On the first day, 13 February, everyone in the municipality were stuck,” said a Sôn Lôi resident. “No one inside could go out, no one from the outside could get it (Nội bất xuất, ngoại bất nhập). Six cases of coronavirus infection were reported in Sơn Lôi”.
On Wednesday, everyone felt relieved and happy that the lockdown was lifted. People from inside the quarantined area and those outside were happy to meet again.
For many “those who spent 20 days in confinement due to coronavirus went through different emotions that perhaps only others who experienced the same can understand.”
On Wednesday morning, Fr Francis Nguyễn Đức Đại, parish priest in Hữu Bằng, and Fr Joseph Hoàng Trọng Hữu from the Diocese of Nin, led the Eucharistic service in Bá Cầu church. Catholics and non-Catholics present thanked God and Our Lady Mother Mary.
The people of Sôn Lôi also thanked bishops, priests, religious, local authorities, officials, benefactors and all those who helped and accompanied the residents "in the plague zone".
According to Ms Thương, the diocese's media officer, “everyone in Sơn Lôi thanked the pastors of the diocese. They worked together at a most difficult time.”
“Catholics and non-Catholics, and local government officials have done very well. They often went to church to pray and thank God, the merciful God. God still loves us in all adversities.”
At 8:00 am on Wednesday, the quarantine was lifted. Checkpoints around Sơn Lôi were removed and residents went back to their normal life.
The people of Sôn Lôi believe that "Through prayers and Mass by Catholics and non-Catholics, God loved and preserved them.”
This victory is the result of the cooperation of the people of the municipality. Everyone actively participated.
Doctors, nurses and public officials worked day and night to monitor the situation and put in place the right measures to treat the virus and prevent it from spreading.