An apartment building in Ho Chi Minh City where Vietnam’s 48th patient of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) resides has been sealed off, while people having close contact to him have been quarantined and tested.

The Hoa Binh Apartment Building in District 10, which houses over 1,000 people, was fenced off on Saturday after a 31-year-old man was confirmed as the country’s 48th COVID-19 patient earlier the same day.

He traveled in the same car as patient No. 45 to the south-central province of Binh Thuan and together had dinner with patient No. 34 and her husband there.

The man was asked to self-isolate at home after patient No. 34, a 51-year-old woman who recently returned from a U.S. trip that included transit time in South Korea and Qatar, was diagnosed with the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) this week.

He was transferred to a quarantine camp in District 10 and sampled there on March 13.

About 20 people who had close contact with the man have tested negative for the disease, but they will have to stay in a quarantine area for 14 days.

The novel coronavirus, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, has infected over 155,900 people and killed more than 5,835 globally as of Sunday morning, according to Ministry of Health statistics.

Vietnam has so far confirmed 53 cases of coronavirus infections, with 16 having fully recovered and been discharged from the hospital.

Thirty-seven cases have been reported in the Southeast Asian country since Friday last week after Vietnam had gone three weeks without any new infection.

Three of the seven COVID-19 patients in Ho Chi Minh City have walked out of the hospital free of the virus.

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