Twenty-one patients were declared free of the novel coronavirus on Friday, bringing Vietnam’s total number of recovered COVID-19 cases to 198.

So far more than two-thirds of the 268 patients have made a full recovery, according to Ministry of Health figures.

Seventeen of the newly recovered patients were discharged from the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi, including a reporter of the English-language daily Viet Nam News, which suspended its print newspaper for two weeks following her diagnosis.

All the patients had tested negative for the virus for 2-3 times in a row.

They are in good health and will be isolated for 14 more days, in accordance with the health ministry’s regulations.

Three other patients were released from the Hospital for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases in the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh after testing negative for three times.

The three are Vietnamese and had returned home from Malaysia and the UK. Two of them were hospitalized on March 22 while the other was admitted to the hospital on March 25.

They will be quarantined for 14 more days upon their discharge.

The last of those discharged had been treated at a district-level hospital in Ninh Binh Province, located in northern Vietnam.

The hospital is expected to declare another patient clear of the virus in the coming days.

Vietnam is treating 70 active COVID-19 cases, with no virus-related fatality having been confirmed so far.

Three critical cases are showing improvement signs, including a 43-year-old British pilot who has been given life support for a few weeks.

At least 18 cases have been linked to a Ho Chi Minh City bar the Vietnam Airlines pilot had visited on March 14.

Infection rates have been going down in the Southeast Asian country for more than a week, apparently due to social distancing measures taken since April 1. 

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