Nine additional community infections of COVID-19 in five northern Vietnamese localities, including one case in Hanoi, have been detected since Thursday afternoon, the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control announced Friday morning.

Patient No.1,581, a resident of Hanoi’s Hai Ba Trung District and had been in close contact with the Van Don International Airport security worker who tested positive earlier this week and was registered as patient No.1553.

The other eight domestic cases include one from Hai Phong City, one from Bac Ninh Province, two from Quang Ninh Province, and four from Hai Duong Province.

Among those eight, the infections in Hai Phong and Bac Ninh Province had been tentatively announced by the local authorities on Thursday evening before being confirmed by the Ministry of Health.

Patient No.1,561 from Hai Phong and Patient No.1,565 from Bac Ninh both reside in Hai Duong and are connected to the virus cluster in Hai Duong’s Chi Linh City.

Patients No.1,573 and No.1,574 from Quang Ninh had also been in close contact with the airport guard.

The four new cases in Hai Duong have been confirmed as connected with the outbreak in Chi Linh City, Hai Duong.

All of the new cases are currently being treated and health officials are continuing to track and trace anyone who may have come into contact with the new patients.

According to the Ministry of Health, test results of more than 5,000 samples collected by four institutes in Hai Duong on Thursday are set to be released on Friday.

On the same day, Hanoi authorities also start testing F1 and F2 cases of patients in Hai Duong and people who had traveled between the capital city and Chi Linh City from January 14 to date.

The number of new cases from these two mass tests are expected to exceed 300.

After almost two months without any locally transmitted cases, Vietnam logged a record daily count of 100 local COVID-19 cases on Thursday.

The nine new cases reported on Friday morning sent the national tally to 1,651, with 1,430 recoveries and 35 virus-related deaths.

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