Vietnam flight attendant given suspended jail term for spreading Covid-19

HANOI: A Vietnam Airlines flight attendant was handed a two-year suspended jail term for spreading the coronavirus, Vietnamese state media said Tuesday.

Duong Tan Hau broke his two-week home quarantine requirement and met 46 people after working on a repatriation flight from Japan in November, the country's official government website said.

The 29-year-old was convicted of "spreading dangerously infectious diseases" in a court in southern Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday, according to the metropolis' official mouthpiece, Phap Luat Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh.

The communist nation has used extensive contact tracing and mandatory mass quarantines to keep virus numbers low.

It has recorded only around 2,600 infections and 35 deaths among its population of 98 million.

Hau broke quarantine rules a week after arriving home, and a Covid-19 test showed he was positive for the virus several days after.

Before the test, he had met friends and took part in a contest at a Ho Chi Minh City university, media reports said.

He spread the virus to three people, according to the city mouthpiece, which added: "The livelihoods of more than 2,000 city residents were affected, with 861 people put under mandatory quarantine and 1,400 others locked down at home."

Prosecutors said Hau's moves caused a "total material loss" of $190,000.