13/20 passengers who boarded same flight as COVID-19 patient test negative in Ho Chi Minh City
Sunday, March 08, 2020, 16:03 GMT+7
Thirteen out of 20 people who arrived in Ho Chi Minh City after boarding the same flight as N.H.N., Vietnam’s 17th patient of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), have tested negative for the virus.
They include four Vietnamese and nine foreigners, who have stayed at Eden and Liberty hotels in the southern metropolis, the city’s center for disease control and prevention confirmed on Sunday.
The agency is now waiting for the test results of seven other passengers.
Although they have tested negative, these passengers still have to stay in a quarantine area for 14 days.
About 85 people who have had contact with the group of 20 passengers have been asked to monitor their own health conditions at their homes and refrain from going outside and interacting with others.
N., a 26-year-old resident in Ba Dinh District, Hanoi, tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday evening.
She had traveled to Italy, France, and the United Kingdom before returning to the Vietnamese capital on flight VN0054, operated by national carrier Vietnam Airlines, on March 2.
The flight carried 201 passengers, of whom 48 are Vietnamese. They have traveled to different provinces and cities in Vietnam upon their arrival in Hanoi.
Vietnamese authorities are tracing the other passengers on board the flight VN0054.
On Sunday morning, N.Q.T., a 61-year-old Hanoi man, tested positive for COVID-19 after he boarded flight VN0054 with N.. T. was sitting in the 5A seat, while N.’s seat was 5K.
N.'s aunt, 64-year-old L.T.H., and chauffeur, 27-year-old D.D.P., were also infected with the disease on Saturday.
COVID-19, which first surfaced in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, has infected over 105,800 people and killed 3,605 globally, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Health.
Vietnam has so far confirmed 21 infections, including 18 Vietnamese, two Chinese nationals, and one Vietnamese American.
Sixteen of the patients have recovered and been discharged from the hospital.
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