A Sri Lanka national who left Ho Chi Minh City for his home country on September 12 was confirmed by Sri Lanka authorities to have been infected with COVID-19 on September 18.

The case was announced by District 7’s vice-chairwoman Bui Thi Ngoc Hieu at a municipal meeting for COVID-19 response on Monday.

It is still unclear when the patient contracted the novel coronavirus, according to Hieu.

After receiving the notification from Sri Lanka authorities, the People’s Committee of District 7 collaborated with relevant agencies in disinfecting the hotel where the patient stayed in Ho Chi Minh City and reviewing people who had contact with the patient.

Consequently, 15 people have been tested for COVID-19 so far and their results have all returned negative for the virus.

One of them has been quarantined at a centralized facility, while 14 others, including the hotel guests and staff and the Sri Lanka national’s friend, have practiced self-quarantine at home.

It has been 54 days since the last local infection was reported in Ho Chi Minh City, according to the municipal Department of Health’s director Nguyen Tan Binh.

There are currently 24 people with mild symptoms of respiratory inflammation in the city.

They are being isolated and monitored at different hospitals.

Eighteen of them tested negative for the coronavirus, while six others are waiting for their results.

The southern metropolis has also documented a Chinese patient, who illegally entered Vietnam on July 27 and tested negative for the virus on September 7 but retested positive a week later.

The Chinese national has been quarantined at a centralized quarantine venue in Cu Chi District.

Binh said that municipal authorities are preparing plans to ensure safety when receiving international arrivals from Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Laos, and Cambodia — the six destinations that Vietnam has resumed commercial flights to.

Vietnam has gone almost three weeks without a local infection as of Tuesday, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

The national tally stands at 1,068 cases, including 691 local infections, with 551 of them being detected from July 25, when the country reported the first patient in the community after over 99 days.

The number of recoveries has reached 957 while 35 patients have died.

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