A British pilot and two other Vietnamese patients are making positive progress in their recovery after falling into critical conditions over the past weeks due to novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Doctors and healthcare experts in Vietnam convened an online consultation to discuss the status of patients who are most seriously sickened by COVID-19.

According to doctors at the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases, a 43-year-old British pilot, who went down with COVID-19 last month, has shown some “positive clinical signs,” although the improvement remains quite slow.

He still tests positive for the novel coronavirus despite a negative test on Sunday, but doctors have noticed improvements in his lung X-ray images and blood-clotting disorders.

The patient is still on a ventilator and receiving outside-body life support in the form of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).

The Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases has been cooperating with Cho Ray Hospital, which is the city’s largest general hospital, to deliberate over the best treatment for the patient.

The man’s positive clinical signs – one of them being awareness of his surroundings – have carried on to Wednesday, the infirmary said in a quick report.

Patient No. 20, a 64-year-old Hanoi woman, is also making good progress after 29 days of receiving support from ECMO.

Patient No. 161, an 88-year-old resident in Hanoi, no longer needs support from a ventilator.

She had suffered a stroke and brain hemorrhage, which resulted in partial paralysis, before being diagnosed with COVID-19.

During the consultation, doctors also discussed the possible treatment of COVID-19 patients using the plasma from those who have recovered from the disease.

The head of the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion and the director of the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi will be in charge of researching and making a detailed plan for this approach.

The novel coronavirus, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, has infected over 1.99 million people and killed more than 126,700 globally as of Wednesday morning, according to Ministry of Health statistics.

Vietnam has confirmed 267 COVID-19 cases in total, with 169 having recovered.

The country has yet to record a death from the disease.

Three out of six patients who are most badly sickened by COVID-19 in the country are now in stable conditions.

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