Twenty-one people who had close interaction with a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patient in Ho Chi Minh City tested negative for the virus, according to the municipal Center for Disease Control.

The 21 people include six members of the patient’s family, six attendants in the patient’s pre-marriage course, and his nine neighbors.

The patient is Vietnam’s 45th COVID-19 case and the fourth infection in Ho Chi Minh City.

The 25-year-old man lives in Ward 7, Tan Binh District, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

He had dinner with patient No. 34 and her husband in Binh Thuan Province, located in south-central Vietnam, on March 3.

He returned to Ho Chi Minh City in a personal vehicle with three other people on March 4.

On March 10, the man began self-isolation at home after learning that patient No. 34 had been infected with the virus.

He developed symptoms including a stuffy nose and a sore throat on March 12 and was sent to a quarantine camp in Tan Binh District, before being transferred on a specialized vehicle to a makeshift hospital in Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City.

His samples were tested by the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases and the Pasteur Institute Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday and Friday, respectively, all returning positive.

He is now in stable health.

Vietnam has confirmed 48 infections so far. Sixteen of them have fully recovered and been discharged from the hospital by February 26.

The other patients are being treated, with no fatality having been reported to date.

Patient No. 17, a 26-year-old Vietnamese woman, was diagnosed on Friday last week after the country had reported no infection since February 13.

Patient No. 34, a 51-year-old Vietnamese woman from Binh Thuan who recently returned from a U.S. trip that included transit time in South Korea and Qatar, allegedly caused at least nine other people in the south-central province to be infected with the virus.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!