Vietnam confirmed the death of the third COVID-19 patient, a 68-year-old woman with blood cancer, on Saturday morning, according to Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Truong Son.

The patient had been battling acute myeloid leukemia, type-2 diabetes and hypertension before her death.

She had been treated at Da Nang Oncology Hospital in the namesake central city before being discharged on July 23.

The patient returned to the infirmary days later with a cough and fever, and was moved to a quarantine area and sampled for COVID-19 testing as per regulations.

The test result came back positive on Thursday, July 30 and she was identified as Vietnam's COVID-19 patient No. 499.

The patient then developed complications including myelosuppression, respiratory failure and circulatory failure.

Her respiratory failure turned worse from 7:00 pm Friday.

Doctors put her on a ventilator and held a consultation with health ministry experts in Da Nang regarding her treatment.

Despite the doctors' efforts, the woman was pronounced dead at 4:55 am Saturday.

According to Dr. Nguyen Gia Binh, chairman of the Vietnam National Association of Emergency, Intensive Care Medicine and Clinical Toxicology, patient No. 499’s death was attributed to end-stage blood cancer, severe pneumonia and COVID-19.

According to the Da Nang Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, the patient had not been anywhere else but the hospital and her home on Tran Cao Van Street in the city’s Thanh Khe District in the 14 days prior to her death.

This is the third virus-related death in Vietnam, a country of over 95 million with 558 COVID-19 cases to date.

On Friday, the Southeast Asian country recorded its first-ever virus-associated deaths of two men aged 61 and 70, both with many severe underlying health conditions.

Vietnam has reported 558 COVID-19 cases, with 373 recoveries, as of Saturday morning.

Out of 182 COVID-19 patients under treatment, 20 are in critical condition while the conditions of 22 others are getting worse.

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