Vietnam’s Ministry of Health on Saturday evening confirmed one COVID-19 case – a Vietnamese man who illegally crossed the Cambodia-Vietnam border earlier this week.

Patient No. 1,440 is a 32-year-old man hailing from the Mekong Delta province of Vinh Long, the ministry said in a report.

He previously traveled from Myanmar to Tak Province in Thailand in a car on December 15.

On December 23, he and six other people entered Cambodia by truck.

On the early morning of December 24, together with two other people, he illegally crossed the border in the southern Vietnamese province of Tay Ninh.

Local authorities are working to determine the exact location where he crossed the border to enter Vietnam.

The man continued to get on a truck from Tay Ninh to go to Ho Chi Minh City, before catching a commercial passenger bus to return to Vinh Long, and heading home on a motorbike taxi.

His family then reported him to local authorities, before he was brought to a quarantine center and tested for COVID-19.

The result came back positive for the novel coronavirus on Saturday.

The patient is being treated at a hospital in Vinh Long.

Local authorities have been tracing all people who had direct and indirect contact with patient No. 1,440 for quarantine and screening.

Thirteen of the contacts have tested negative for the first time as of Sunday morning.

Vietnam has documented 1,440 COVID-19 cases as yet, with 1,303 having recovered and 35 deaths, according to Ministry of Health statistics.

Prior to the detection of patient No. 1,440, the country had not recorded any local infection since December 2.

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