A prominent Vietnamese businessman and his spouse have donated over VND6.23 billion (US$265,000) for the Ho Chi Minh City administration to build nine negative pressure rooms to treat COVID-19 patients, his spokesperson told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Thursday.

The donation had yet to be widely made public, according to the spokesperson.

The business tycoon is Johnathan Hanh Nguyen, chairman of Imex Pan Pacific Group (IPPG), which is well known as one of the biggest multi-business corporates in Vietnam operating in different fields, including fashion, F&B, real estate, and non-aviation service.

In addition to the negative pressure rooms, the donation will also be used to install medical equipment, according to an unconfirmed photo of the payment order signed by IPPG president Le Hong Thuy Tien – Johnathan Hanh Nguyen’s wife – seen on social media.

The couple’s donation was made as their daughter, Nguyen Thao Tien, is being quarantined and treated for COVID-19 at a makeshift hospital in Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City.

Tien, 24, lives in London and attended the Milan Fashion Week in Italy from February 18 to 24, where she interacted with Vietnam’s ‘patient No. 17,’ who was diagnosed with COVID-19 in Hanoi on March 6.

Fearing that she could have contracted the virus from patient No. 17, Tien’s family chartered a private jet for her to return to Vietnam.

The private jet transporting Tien from London to Ho Chi Minh City on March 9 was the talk of the town, for it reportedly set her family back some $360,000.

Tien’s test results came out positive for the new coronavirus on the same day and she was confirmed as Vietnam’s 32nd COVID-19 patient.

She announced on her social media account on Wednesday that she was “recovering very well” and had “tested negative for the virus for the first time.”

She thanked her family and friends for encouraging her, and especially the doctors and medical staff who cared for and treated her for the illness.

The novel coronavirus, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, has infected nearly 245,600 people and killed more than 10,000 around the world, according to Ministry of Health statistics.

Over 87,000 patients have recovered worldwide.

Vietnam has so far confirmed 87 cases of COVID-19 infections, with 17 having fully recovered and walked out of the hospital free of the virus by Friday.

No deaths from COVID-19 have been reported in the Southeast Asian country to date.

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