An employee at a major electronics chain in Da Nang, who was in contact with two British nationals previously testing positive for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), has been confirmed as Vietnam’s 35th patient of the viral disease.

The 29-year-old Vietnamese woman works as a shop assistant at a store of Dien May Xanh - a major Vietnamese electronics retailer - in Hai Chau District, Da Nang, the Ministry of Health said in a statement on Wednesday morning.

At around 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm on March 4, she was in contact with two British nationals who went shopping there.

The Britons were confirmed as Vietnam’s 22nd and 23rd case of COVID-19 infection on Sunday, alongside seven other foreigners, after being on the same flight with the country’s ‘patient No.17’ from London to Hanoi this month.

Samples of the Da Nang sales clerk were collected by the municipal Center for Disease Control and sent to the Pasteur Institute Nha Trang in the south-central city of Nha Trang for testing on Tuesday evening. They have come out positive for the novel coronavirus.

The patient is now quarantined for monitoring and treatment at Da Nang Hospital.

She is the 35th COVID-19 patient in Vietnam, and the 19th infection confirmed in the country in less than a week.

The novel coronavirus, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, has infected over 118,800 people and killed nearly 4,300 globally as of Wednesday morning, according to Ministry of Health statistics.

Vietnam has so far confirmed 35 infections, including 21 Vietnamese, two Chinese nationals, one Vietnamese American, nine British citizens, one Mexican, and one Irish national.

Sixteen of the patients had recovered and been discharged from the hospital by February 26, while 19 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.

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