A doctor working at a field hospital for COVID-19 treatment in the southern Vietnamese province of Long An tested positive for the novel coronavirus, authorities said on Friday evening.

The field hospital, set up inside the campus of the Long An Hospital for Lung Diseases with a capacity of 400 beds on June 16 and put into operation on June 23, has admitted more than 30 COVID-19 patients.

By mass testing all medical staff working at the field hospital on Friday, a doctor was found infected with the coronavirus.

Another real-time PCR test conducted by Long An General Hospital later on the same day also showed that the doctor was positive for the pathogen.

The doctor had been working at the Long An Hospital for Lung Diseases for many years before being designated for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19 at the field hospital upon its establishment.

He has been staying there without returning home ever since.

Upon the detection of the doctor’s infection, authorities have locked down the area of his home in Ward 7 of the province’s Tan An City and traced people who had directly contacted him before he came into the full-time service in the field hospital.

The Ministry of Health on Saturday morning confirmed two imported and 13 local cases of COVID-19, including two in Long An.

The new cases increased the number of local infections in the southern province since the eruption of the pandemic’s fourth wave in Vietnam on April 27 to 49.

The ministry also added 563 cases in Ho Chi Minh City to the Friday evening update, raising the national tally to 15,115 infections, with 5,949 recoveries and 74 deaths.

As many as 11,794 domestic cases have been recorded nationwide in the current coronavirus outbreak.

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