No new local COVID-19 transmissions reported in Vietnam for 75 straight days

Among the total 355 infections, 215 were imported and quarantined upon arrival.

At present, 9,877 people who had close contact with patients or entered from pandemic-hit areas being are quarantined at hospitals, concentrated quarantine facilities, and homes.

Yesterday, five more patients treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi were announced as recovered. According to the committee’s treatment sub-committee, so far 335 patients, or 94.4% of the total confirmed cases, have been given all-clear, with no deaths.

Twenty patients are being treated at health facilities nationwide and most are in stable condition. One tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 once and three have tested negative at least twice.

Vietnamese doctors to fly home with Patient 91

Patient 91 has made a miraculous recovery and will soon return to his home country on July 12. (Photo: Cho Ray Hospital)

Currently, all 50 COVID-19 patients of foreign nationalities have recovered in Vietnam. The most severe case, who is now free from coronavirus but still undergoing extensive treatment, is a British pilot known as Patient 91. So far, he has undergone 103 days of treatment with a miraculous recovery and is still undergoing rehabilitation at Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.

In response to the patient's wish to return to his home country, the 44-year-old man is expected to return to the UK on a Vietnam Airlines flight on July 12. The National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control on June 29 decided to dispatch a medical team to accompany him on the flight, which also aims to repatriate overseas Vietnamese.

According to experts, Patient 91 is undergoing physical therapy, rehabilitation and nutrition enhancement and he needs at least 2-3 weeks to recover and be eligible for the flight. Before sending him home, the committee’s treatment sub-committee will hold the 6th national consultation to assess his overall health condition for the 12-hour nonstop flight. Previously, Vietnamese experts have had five consultations to find the best treatment solutions for the pilot in his corresponding treatment stages.

Health Ministry informs about a relapse case in Ho Chi Minh City

Taking samples for COVID-19 testing. (Photo: Ho Chi Minh City CDC)

The Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health (MoH) on June 30 announced that all samples taken for SARS-CoV-2 screening on a recovered COVID-19 patient who tested positive again in Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Thanh District, as well as her close contacts, were negative.

Last night, the ministry informed about Patient 326 who was defined as weak re-positive for SARS-CoV-2 after 20 days of being declared as recovered.

Over the past six days, Ho Chi Minh City’s Centre of Diseases Control (CDC) took samples on all residents on the 12th floor of an apartment in Binh Thach District, where the patient resides, after her latest test result on June 20 was slightly re-positive for SARS-CoV-2.

The 2000-born is an overseas student who was repatriated home from France on May 24 and was also isolated immediately after her entry at Cu Chi Field Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. She was found positive for SAR-CoV-2 on May 25 but was declared as recovered on June 9.

After leaving the hospital, the patient continued to be isolated for 14 days in an isolation camp in Binh Thanh District, after which she went home on the 12th floor of the Pham Viet Chanh Apartment in the same district for six days. The patient is still tested regularly to check her health condition.

To ensure the safety for the community and proactive prevention of COVID-19, the Ho Chi Minh City CDC has asked Patient 326’s relatives and residents living on the same floor as her to take samples for testing. The MoH recommends that people not be too worried and bewildered because there have been many relapse cases after discharge but they are not likely to infect others anymore.