The Department of Health of Nghe An Province, located in north-central Vietnam, said on Monday morning that it had detected four new COVID-19 cases in the community.

The first case was N.Q.B., a 28-year-old man living in Trung Do Ward in Vinh City, who had come into direct contact with a coronavirus patient and had been quarantined at a hotel.

The second was N.T.H., a 44-year-old woman in Kim Lien Commune of Nam Dan District.

On June 14, H. had a friend take her on a motorbike to Vinh City General Hospital, where she took a rapid test for COVID-19, with the result returning negative.

However, her second test came back positive for the virus on Sunday when she visited Nam Dan District’s medical center to check her fever and fatigue.

The remaining patients were D.S.T., a 59-year-old man in Hung Binh Ward in Vinh, and his wife, 55-year-old N.T.L.

L. bought medicine without a doctor’s prescription after developing a fever and tiredness on June 17.

T. took L. to Cua Dong General Hospital to take a rapid test for COVID-19 on Sunday.

After L.’s test results returned positive for the pathogen twice, T. also took the same rapid test, with the result showing that he caught the virus.

The couple were examined again with real-time RT-PCR tests and confirmed as COVID-19 patients.

The Nghe An health department reported the four new infections to the Ministry of Health, which logged them into the official tally at noon on Monday.

The new cases increased Nghe An’s caseload recorded since June 13 to 31, including 19 infections in Vinh, nine in Dien Chau District, one in Quy Hop District, and one in Nam Dan.

Authorities collected 60,000 samples from people in Vinh, using the real-time RT-PCR technique, on Sunday evening.

Vinh City has also gone into social distancing from Saturday.

In addition to the four patients in Nghe An, the health ministry announced at noon on Monday 84 other local cases in Ho Chi Minh City, Bac Giang Province, Bac Ninh Province, and Ha Tinh Province, alongside two imported infections.

The national tally stood at 13,348, including 11,647 domestic cases and 1,701 imported infections.

Of that, 10,078 patients have been registered since April 27 -- the beginning of the fourth and worst infection wave in Vietnam so far. 

Recoveries have reached 5,229 while 67 people, most of whom had had pre-existing medical conditions, have died.

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