Authorities in Hanoi started placing an apartment building in Thanh Xuan District under lockdown on Friday after two residents living there had been confirmed positive for the novel coronavirus.

N.V.S., a 61-year-old resident at the apartment building at 35 Le Van Thiem Street in Thanh Xuan District, hosted a visitor from Ho Chi Minh City -- currently a COVID-19 hotbed in Vietnam -- on July 5 and 6, according to the Hanoi Center for Disease Control (HCDC).

After the guest was registered as a COVID-19 patient, S. and his family member, 11-year-old N.T.L., tested positive for the virus by the Medical Center of Thanh Xuan District on Thursday.

As further tests conducted by the HCDC confirmed S. and L.’s infections, local authorities have sealed off the aforementioned apartment building for three days, starting Friday, for contact tracing and sample collecting.

The two new infections have raised Hanoi’s tally in the current virus wave, which broke out on April 27, to 492 patients.

The capital city gradually resumed several activities and services, including outdoor exercise, coffee shops, dine-in services, and barbershops in late June as it seemed to have put the outbreak under control before reporting new cases in the past few days.

Authorities have thus restored a ban on outdoor exercise since Thursday.

The Ministry of Health reported 598 new local coronavirus cases on Saturday morning, including 520 patients in Ho Chi Minh City, taking the caseload to 26,608 infections, with 8,984 recoveries and 110 deaths.

Up to 23,126 cases, or nearly 87 percent of the overall tally, have been recorded in the ongoing round.  

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