Sep 7, 2021 - World

Vietnam court sentences man to 5 years in jail for spreading COVID-19

Erin Doherty

Residents wait to provide swab samples for Covid-19 testing along a street in Hanoi on August 18, 2021, — Residents wait to provide swab samples for Covid-19 testing along a street in Hanoi on August 18, 2021 amid a two-week lockdown. Photo: Nhac Nguyen/AFP via Getty Images

A Vietnamese man on Monday was jailed for five years for breaking the country's COVID-19 quarantine rules and spreading the virus, Reuters reports.

Driving the news: Le Van Tri, 28, who was convicted of "spreading dangerous infectious diseases," breached the 21-day quarantine regulations after traveling back to Ca Mau from Ho Chi Minh City, the state-run Vietnam News Agency reported, per Reuters.

"Tri infected eight people, one of whom died due to the virus after one month of treatment," state media reported.
Vietnam has sentenced two other people to 18-month and two-year suspended jail terms on the same charges, Reuters reports.

The big picture: Vietnam had maintained relatively low COVID case numbers due to mass testing, aggressive contact tracing and strict quarantine rules early in the pandemic, per Reuters.

The country is battling recent surges of the virus, however, and the government has imposed strict lockdowns.
A worsening COVID outbreak in Vietnam has infected more than 536,000 people and killed 13,385 — the majority of cases happening in the past few months, per Reuters.

Go deeper: Lockdown issued in Hanoi due to COVID-19 surge in Vietnam

Add Axios on Google

Vietnam court sentences man to 5 years in jail for spreading COVID-19

What to read next