Laos Reports Taiwan Returnee With COVID-19 As Undocumented Travel Hurts Fight Against Virus

Reports from Vientiane this weekend indicate over 50 students moving across land borders between Laos and Vietnam did so without permission and without undergoing a government mandated period of 14 days quarantine.

The students in question, all Laotian nationals were studying in Vietnam but returned to their home nation without following proper protocol.

In Vientiane The Ministry of Education and Sports has requested the students now come forward to go into quarantine for 14 days.

Reports from Laos say that the students were studying at Quang Tri Medical College in central Vietnam but that in late July 56 students disappeared.

They were found to have returned to Laos, some without passports, although two later returned to their college in Vietnam voluntarily and were thereafter put into quarantine.

After the Quang Tri Department of Foreign Affairs reported the case to the Consulate General of Laos in nearby Danang it was found that 39 students of the 56 had passports whilst the rest did not, and it appeared that the majority had disappeared during the summer vacation at the college.

Any student now failing to report to authorities and thereby not going through a period of quarantine will lose the opportunity to complete their studies in Vietnam.

Laos remains one of the least affected nations in Asia although two more cases over recent days including a Laotian male returning from Taiwan, and a female student coming home from the USA have pushed the number of confirmed cases up to 22 sources say.