Vietnam’s Ministry of Health recorded two COVID-19 cases on Friday, the lowest daily count in three weeks.

Both patients were registered in Da Nang, a beach city in the central part of the country.

Patient No. 1,008 is a 75-year-old woman living in Hoa Vang District while patient No. 1,009, a man, is 47 years old and resides in Son Tra District.

They came into close contact with their family members who had been infected with the new coronavirus.

The two are being isolated for treatment at a field hospital in Hoa Vang.

Friday saw the lowest daily increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in 20 days, said Nguyen Trong Khoa, an official from the health ministry.

Those confirmed as coronavirus patients in recent times had had direct contact with detected cases and thus been quarantined, Khoa added.

Vietnam also announced three recoveries in Hanoi on Friday, taking the number of recovered patients to 545, according to the health ministry.  

The Southeast Asian nation has reported 1,009 coronavirus cases, including 667 domestic infections, since January 23, when it confirmed the very first patient.

Twenty-five patients have died so far, most having had serious pre-existing conditions, while another passed away on August 12 after having tested negative for the virus four times.

A total of 527 community cases have been documented since July 25, when Da Nang detected the first local transmission after Vietnam had gone 99 days without any locally-transmitted case.

The beach city is the country's outbreak epicenter as it has logged 369 cases from that date.

Vietnam has shut its border to foreigners since March so as to curb COVID-19 but the country grants exemption to foreign experts and skilled workers who are to be quarantined upon arrival.

The Vietnamese government has arranged for many flights to take home citizens stranded in other countries over virus-related travel restrictions.

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