Vietnam logged two imported COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, including an American expert who arrived in the Southeast Asian country more than two weeks ago.
The expert, 58, touched down at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City on board flight EK392 from Dubai on January 9, the Ministry of Health said in a report on Tuesday.
He was quarantined upon entry in accordance with COVID-19 control regulations.
The U.S. national tested negative for the novel coronavirus on January 10 before having his sample taken again for a retest on January 23, the result of which returned positive at the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control on January 24.
The patient is being treated at a makeshift hospital in the city’s outlying Cu Chi District.
The other case is a Vietnamese returnee from the U.S.
She landed at Tan Son Nhat aboard flight CX799, with transit time in Hong Kong, on January 22.
The woman, 49, was sent to quarantine upon landing.
The patient tested positive for the pathogen on January 23.
She is being isolated for treatment at the same makeshift hospital in Cu Chi.
Vietnam has confirmed 1,551 coronavirus cases as of Tuesday, with 1,430 recoveries, including five announced the same day, and 35 virus-related fatalities, according to the health ministry.
It has detected zero local infections since December 2.
The Southeast Asian country is sealing its borders to all international arrivals but it still allows entry to skilled workers, experts, diplomats, and Vietnamese repatriates, who are all subject to mandatory quarantine upon arrival.
The country ranks 174th in the world when it comes to COVID-19 patient counts.
Over 100 million people have caught COVID-19 globally, with the death toll reaching 2.15 million, according to data compiled by the health ministry.
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