Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have sealed off an apartment block as a resident had tested positive for the coronavirus once.

Officials started isolating Block A1 of Sunview Town Apartment Buildings in Hiep Binh Phuoc Ward, Thu Duc City, which is under Ho Chi Minh City, on Tuesday morning.

Sunview Town residents are now banned from leaving the buildings while those residing in Block A1 will be tested for COVID-19, Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper journalists reported from the scene.

Nguyen Tan Binh, director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, and Nguyen Tri Dung, director of the municipal Center for Disease Control, were both present at Sunview Town to direct pandemic control efforts.

A Thu Duc City Medical Center spokesperson told Tuoi Tre that a Sunview Town resident, 35-year-old N.Q.N., tested positive for the coronavirus at Vinmec Central Park International Hospital in Binh Thanh District on Monday after having a fever, cough, and sore throat.  

N.’s sample has been sent to the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases for a retest.

The suspected case is a Deloitte Vietnam employee.

N.’s family includes five members, according to the spokesperson.

His wife works for a company at a high-tech park in the city.

Health authorities have fumigated Sunview Town while informing the municipal Center for Disease Control and the couple’s workplaces for disinfection and contact tracing purposes.

N. has never left Ho Chi Minh City in the past month, according to an epidemiological investigation.

He said he could not remember how many people he had come into contact with.

Among his contacts was an Indian expert who was not a COVID-19 patient.

Vinmec Central Park International Hospital is among 24 medical facilities permitted to do conclusive coronavirus tests in Ho Chi Minh City, according to a list on the website of the General Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health.

Vietnam has confirmed 1,340 domestic cases in 28 provinces and cities since April 27, when it began to deal with a fourth wave following around a month of no known community transmission, according to the health ministry’s data.

Ho Chi Minh City has detected only one domestic case in this fourth wave.

Vietnam has logged 4,378 local and imported infections since the coronavirus emerged in the country on January 23, 2020, including 2,668 recoveries and 37 virus-related deaths, according to the health ministry.

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