The Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control (HCDC) announced on Friday afternoon that it was looking for visitors to a Starbucks outlet and a bookstore in District 1, where COVID-19 patients No. 4,583 and No. 4,782 had visited.

Patient No. 4,583, a woman from District 7, who had been to northern Hai Phong City between April 24 and May 5, performed a transaction at the cashier counter on the ground floor, placed at the left entrance of the Nguyen Hue bookstore at 40 Nguyen Hue Street in Ben Nghe Ward in District 1 from 6:30 pm to 6:40 pm on May 14.

Patient No. 4,782, one of the three members infected with the coronavirus in the family selling noodle soup at an alley down Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street in District 3, stayed at the Starbucks coffee shop at the intersection of Pham Hong Thai and Nguyen Thi Nghia Streets in District 1 from 9:00 pm to 9:45 pm on May 13.

The results of gene sequencing of patients No. 4,583 and No. 4,780, who comes from the same family as patient No. 4,782, by the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases showed on Friday that they were infected with the coronavirus strain B.1.617.2 from India and B.1.1.7 from the UK, respectively.

Both strains are considered to be highly contagious.

The HCDC requests people who visited these two places at the aforementioned time frames to make medical declaration at local health centers for instructions on COVID-19 monitoring, testing and medical isolation as per the regulations.

The center also asks people returning to Ho Chi Minh City from Hanoi, central Da Nang City, northern Bac Ninh Province, and northern Bac Giang Province after the recent public holiday that last between April 30 and May 3 to quickly contact local healthcare facilities for COVID-19 testing. 

These people are also requested to limit contact with others while awaiting their test results.

The HCDC also encourages netizens in the city to comply with the regulations of the municipal Steering Committee for Disease Prevention and Control and the recommendations of the health sector, refrain from going outside when not necessary, and strictly follow the five requirements of keeping distances, wearing face masks, no gatherings, disinfection, and performing medical declarations.

Ho Chi Minh City has logged six locally-transmitted COVID-19 patients during the current wave of infections.

This fourth wave, which erupted on April 27, follows a month without any known community transmission in Vietnam. 

The country has so far registered 1,912 domestic infections in 30 provinces and cities in this bout, according to the Ministry of Health’s data.

The ministry has confirmed 4,961 local and imported coronavirus cases, including 2,689 recoveries, since the virus first hit Vietnam on January 23, 2020.

The pathogen-related death toll mounted to 41, with most having suffered critical pre-existing health problems.

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