The chairman of Ho Chi Minh City on Monday insisted that police officers and military soldiers search for two Chinese who had fled a quarantine center on the weekend, as the novel coronavirus has made a comeback in Vietnam.

Authorities have yet to find two Chinese nationals who had escaped a COVID-19 quarantine center operated by the Ho Chi Minh City Military School in Cu Chi District on Sunday night, Nguyen Huu Hoai Phu, chairman of the district, said at a meeting on Monday.  

Ho Thanh Phong, a senior doctor at the military school, confirmed that information.

Born in 1999 and 2001, the two were among 11 Chinese who had illegally entered Vietnam and were intercepted by police in District 10, Ho Chi Minh City.

They were sent to the quarantine center in Cu Chi five days ago.

Cu Chi authorities searched for the Chinese throughout Sunday night but have been unable to find them, Phu said, adding that the duo may have fled to other districts.

Ho Chi Minh City chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong demanded at the meeting that police officers and military soldiers hunt for the two Chinese people, even though they had tested negative for COVID-19 once.

The Ministry of Health announced the first six local infections in over a month on Thursday last week.

It registered seven additional domestic cases on Friday, three on Saturday, and another eight on Sunday.

Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and many other provinces have ceased non-essential businesses like karaoke parlors, massage joints, cinemas, nightclubs, discos, and online game centers to stall coronavirus spread.

Pyrotechnic displays intended to celebrate Reunification Day (April 30) and International Workers’ Day (May 1) on the weekend also had to be scrapped over the health ministry’s warning of a large-scale outbreak.

Droves of people are returning to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City after enjoying a four-day holiday from Friday in popular tourist destinations or their hometowns.

Vietnam has gone over three phases of COVID-19, with 2,962 infections, 2,549 recoveries, and 35 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health's statistics.

A total of 415 cases were logged from January 23 to July 24 last year, 1,136 from July 25 last year to January 27 this year, and 1,411 from January 28 to the present.