Vietnam confirmed two new patients of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Wednesday morning, one of whom is an instance of community spread.

According to the Ministry of Health, patient No. 250 is a 50-year-old woman from Ha Loi Village in Me Linh District, Hanoi.

She is a neighbor of patient No. 243.

The woman started developing symptoms of illness on April 2. She was sampled on April 5 and the result came back positive on April 7.

She is now being treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Disease in Dong Anh District, Hanoi.

Ha Loi Village, home to nearly 10,900 people, has been locked down for 14 days starting from April 7 in relation to patient No. 243, who had attended crowded events including a wedding and a death anniversary party with fellow villagers before the diagnosis.

Patient No. 251 is a 64-year-old man from the northern province of Ha Nam.

He has stayed in the department of gastroenterology at Ha Nam General Hospital since March 20 to receive treatment for a pre-existing illness.

His son and daughter-in-law have traveled from Hanoi to Ha Nam to take care of him.

He was sampled on April 6 and the result returned positive for COVID-19 on April 7.

The patient is being quarantined and treated at the provincial hospital.

About 30 doctors and nurses at the infirmary who had close contact with the patient have been isolated.

The source of his COVID-19 infection remains unclear, indicating a community spread case.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines community spread as when “people have been infected with the virus in an area, including some who are not sure how or where they became infected.”

The novel coronavirus, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, has infected over 1.42 million people and killed more than 81,700 globally as of Wednesday morning, according to Ministry of Health statistics.

Vietnam has announced 251 COVID-19 patients so far, with 122 having recovered.

No fatality in association with the disease has been reported in the country to date.

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