Vietnam announced 27 locally-transmitted COVID-19 infections, one imported case, and two deaths on Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Health.
Twenty-three cases were reported in Da Nang, a beach city in the central part of the country, while three patients were confirmed in neighboring Quang Nam Province.
One patient was recorded in Dong Nai Province. He is a doctor at Dong Nai General hospital and had come into contact with a COVID-19 patient when visiting a relative at Da Nang Hospital in the namesake city.
The other infection was imported from Equatorial Guinea, a Central African country.
The patient is a Vietnamese returnee who had arrived in Hanoi aboard a flight with 218 other compatriots on July 29. They were all sent to a quarantine center upon landing. Health authorities have detected at least 21 patients among them.
The two deaths recorded on Tuesday were sexagenarians who had suffered serious underlying medical problems, including chronic renal failure.
Vietnam has registered 670 COVID-19 patients as of Tuesday evening, with 308 imported cases quarantined upon arrival.
The Southeast Asian country announced four recoveries on Tuesday, taking the total to 378.
It has also documented eight virus-related fatalities who all had severe pre-existing conditions.
Two hundred and twenty-two local infections have been linked to Da Nang since July 25, when Vietnam recorded the first local transmission after having gone 99 days with no documented community spread.
The 222 cases consist of 158 in Da Nang, 44 in Quang Nam, three in Quang Ngai Province, three in Dak Lak Province, two in Dong Nai Province, eight in Ho Chi Minh City, two in Hanoi, one in Ha Nam Province, and one in Thai Binh Province.
Vietnam is quarantining 133,279 people who had close contact with confirmed patients or entered the country from virus-hit regions.
The nation has closed its borders to foreigners since March to prevent coronavirus spread.
But foreign experts and skilled workers are still allowed to enter the country, subject to government approval and mandatory quarantine.
Vietnamese returnees from abroad on board government-sanctioned planes have to undergo compulsory collective isolation as well.
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