The Vietnamese Ministry of Health confirmed the death of three COVID-19 patients on Wednesday, alongside five imported cases.

One of the victims had tested negative for the novel coronavirus three times, on August 19, 21, and 23.

This case is not counted in Vietnam’s death toll, which has risen to 29.

All three patients, aged 36, 56, and 66, had suffered serious pre-existing conditions, including end-stage chronic kidney failure, hypertension, heart failure, and stroke.

A separate patient died on August 12 after having tested negative for the pathogen four times. The health ministry did not include this fatality in the death toll either.  

The health ministry recorded five imported COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.

Three of them are Vietnamese who landed at Can Tho International Airport in the namesake city, located in the Mekong Delta, from the UAE on August 9.

They were sent to a quarantine center upon arrival, as per regulations. They tested positive for the virus on August 8 and 25.

The other three cases are also Vietnamese who returned from Russia on August 11.

They were quarantined upon arrival at Van Don International Airport in northern Quang Ninh Province.

The trio tested negative on August 13 before retesting positive on Tuesday.

Vietnam has registered a total of 1,034 COVID-19 patients since January 23, when the virus first hit the country.

Six hundred and thirty-two patients have recovered from the disease, including 40 recoveries on Wednesday.

Vietnam has confirmed 547 local infections since July 25, when Da Nang, beach city on the central coast, recorded the first domestically-transmitted case after the nation had spent 99 days without any community transmission.

Most of such domestic cases have been associated with the beach city.

Vietnam is quarantining 69,429 people who had direct contact with infected patients or entered the country from outbreak-stricken areas.

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