Five people living in the same neighborhood in Ho Chi Minh City were confirmed as COVID-19 patients on Monday, all related to a religious mission.

The Ministry of Health confirmed the five cases on Monday morning.

Local health authorities had sent them to a makeshift hospital in Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City for treatment on Sunday.

They live on the sixth floor of a seven-story building that offers rented rooms on Le Van Sy Street in Tan Binh District, according to a contact tracing report.

All five infections were traced back to Revival Ekklesia Mission, a Christian congregation in Go Vap District, which is largely isolated as the city’s biggest cluster.

The building has been locked down since May 27 after a Revival Ekklesia Mission follower living on the sixth floor was infected with the coronavirus.

The five stay in the same room as the follower so they had been quarantined prior to their diagnosis.

Fifty-one people on the sixth floor have been sent to concentrated quarantine centers while 349 others who live on the remaining floors are told to self-isolate at home.

The 349 have tested negative for the pathogen twice.

Tan Binh health workers have disinfected the building and proceeded with contact tracing.

Vietnam has documented a total of 8,883 coronavirus patients, including 3,368 recoveries and 53 deaths, since early 2020, when it confirmed the first coronavirus-positive patient.

The Southeast Asian country has recorded 5,758 infections in 39 out of 63 cities and provinces since April 27, when the fourth wave erupted.

By comparison, the nation confirmed 106 community cases in the first wave from January 23 to April 16, 2020, 554 in the second from July 25 to December 1, 2020, and 910 in the third from January 28 to March 25, 2021. 

Ho Chi Minh City has logged 402 cases in this fourth round, most linked to the Revival Ekklesia Mission.

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