Officials on Tho Chau Islands off southern Kien Giang Province said on Tuesday that they had detected the first-ever suspected COVID-19 case on the furthest offshore island commune since the appearance of the pandemic in Vietnam early last year. 

The suspected patient is N.D.T., a technician of Ho Chi Minh City-based KASATI Joint Stock Company, which is active in the telecom, informatics, and electronics sectors.

T. had been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus before arriving in Tho Chau Islands by ferry on October 21.

The person has been quarantined at Dinh Nhan guest house in the commune.

The first rapid antigen tests on all of 38 people coming into direct contact with T. returned negative for the coronavirus.

All passengers that traveled on the same ferry as T. on October 21 have been requested to isolate themselves and monitor their health at home, as well as contact the local medical station to deal with any COVID-19 symptoms.

There had been no COVID-19 transmission on Tho Chau Islands before T.’s case, according to Do Van Dung, chairman of the island commune.

Dung advised local people to avoid gatherings and going outside unnecessarily, and strictly implement pandemic prevention and control measures in accordance with recommendations by the Ministry of Health.

Tho Chau Islands, also spelled as Tho Chu, are administered by the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang and lie 100 nautical miles off the provincial capital city of Rach Gia.

It is also the furthest offshore island commune, consisting of multiple islands, in an inlet of the Gulf of Thailand, which adjoins the southwestern coast of Vietnam.

Vietnam has recorded 891,389 community transmissions in 62 out of its 63 provinces and cities, including 7,846 cases in Kien Giang, since the fourth virus wave emerged on April 27.

As many as 807,473 of the patients have recovered from the respiratory disease.

The number of daily new cases in the country reached a peak of almost 15,000 in September before dipping to around 3,000 in mid-October.

The nation has so far fully vaccinated over 21.8 million of its 98-million population.

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