Vietnam reports 34th COVID-19 patient, a woman returning from US
Tuesday, March 10, 2020, 17:58 GMT+7
The number of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infections in Vietnam has doubled in less than a week as a Vietnamese woman, who returned to the country from a trip to the U.S. that included transit time in South Korea and Qatar, tested positive for the virus.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Health on Tuesday afternoon confirmed the 34th COVID-19 patient, who is a 51-year-old Vietnamese woman.
She left for the U.S. on February 22 and came back to Vietnam on March 2.
She transited Incheon International Airport near Seoul, South Korea, and Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar during her respective departure and return flight trips.
Her return flight landed at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City on the morning of March 2.
The woman was admitted to the General Hospital of the south-central province of Binh Thuan on Tuesday morning and tested positive for the novel coronavirus there.
She is currently quarantined and treated at the Binh Thuan hospital.
This is the 34th COVID-19 patient in Vietnam, and the 18th infection confirmed in the country in the past five days.
The novel coronavirus, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, has infected over 114,100 people and killed more than 4,000 globally, according to Ministry of Health statistics.
There have been 27 deaths over 702 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S., while 54 people have died and 7,513 sickened by the viral disease in South Korea.
Meanwhile, Qatar has only had 12 infections of the disease, according to the same source.
Vietnam has so far confirmed 34 infections, including 20 Vietnamese, two Chinese nationals, one Vietnamese American, nine British citizens, one Mexican, and one Irish national.
Sixteen of the patients have recovered and been discharged from the hospital by February 26, while 18 others are being treated.
Patient No. 17, a resident in Hanoi, was confirmed on Friday last week after Vietnam had reported no new infection since February 13.
At least 15 other infections can be traced back to the Hanoi woman, with over 100 people in Vietnam being placed in quarantine for interacting with N. or with those who had close contact with her.
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