The Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control said on Thursday evening that all people in direct contact with recently announced local COVID-19 cases had tested negative for the virus.  

All 852 people found to have come into direct contact with patients 1,342, 1,347, 1,348, and 1,349 already had a negative test, the center announced.

Patient 1,342 is a Vietnam Airlines flight attendant who was confirmed as a COVID-19 case in quarantine on Sunday.

He had returned from Japan on November 14 and been sent to the carrier’s centralized quarantine center immediately as per regulations.

Five days into his quarantine, he was allowed to leave the centralized quarantine center and come back to his home for mandatory self-isolation after having tested negative twice. He retested positive then.

The flight attendant had contact with three people during his self-isolation, one of whom was recorded as patient 1,347 on Monday.

On Tuesday, the other two patients were confirmed to have caught the virus from patient 1,347, a Vietnamese teacher of English.      

A total of 2,244 people have been tested for COVID-19 following their direct and indirect contact with the four patients, the disease control center said.

Apart from the 852 negative cases, another 791 also tested negative while 1,392 people are waiting for their test results.

Over 1,600 people are being quarantined in collective centers whereas nearly 1,500 others are isolated at home or other accommodations.

Prior to patient 1,347’s diagnosis, Vietnam had spent 88 days detecting zero infections in the community.

The Southeast Asian nation has documented 1,361 coronavirus cases as of Thursday night, with 1,209 recoveries and 35 virus-related deaths.

No local infections have been reported in Vietnam since Wednesday.

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