A doctor from the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases, a central-level hospital that tends to COVID-19 patients in Hanoi, has recently tested positive for the coronavirus, according to Tran Thi Nhi Ha, director of the municipal Department of Health.

The doctor in question works at the emergency and intensive care department and had made no contact with COVID-19 patients in the hospital, Ha said on Tuesday.

The Hanoi Department of Health is scrambling to perform contact tracing and identify people who came into close contact with the doctor.

During his recent holidays in late April and early May, the infected doctor traveled to various spots and visited friends in Ba Dinh, Dong Da, Hai Ba Trung, and Tay Ho Districts, among other areas in Hanoi, a source said.

On 10:00 pm April 28, he arrived at a karaoke parlor at 54 Chua Lang Street and spent around two hours there. 

The source of transmission for the doctor has not yet been discovered.

This is the fifth COVID-19 case that Hanoi has detected since the COVID-19 outbreak returned to Vietnam on April 27.

At that time, the Southeast Asian country had gone about a month without detecting any cases in the community.

Vietnam has confirmed 2,996 coronavirus infections, including 1,608 local cases and 35 deaths, since the virus first struck the country on January 23, 2020, according to the health ministry’s data.

The government has vaccinated more than 585,000 people since its roll-out of mass immunization on March 8, it said in a report on its verified Facebook account on Wednesday.

Those inoculated were medical staff and other frontline workers.

Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and other provinces have shuttered non-essential services such as karaoke parlors, nightclubs, discos, and online game centers to quell the virus.

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