65 patients test Covid-19 negative in Vietnam

Of the negative results, 53 have been tested between two and four times, and the remaining 12 have done so once.

Among the patients who tested negative for the first time is a 51-year-old businesswoman in the south central province of Binh Thuan, who was confirmed positive on March 11.

She’d flown back from Washington D.C. on February 29, transiting at the Doha International Airport in Qatar. She landed March 2 at the Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCMC and took a car home to the resort town of Phan Thiet in Binh Thuan.

On March 5, she developed high fever and a cough. So far, 10 patients, including eight of her relatives in Binh Thuan and two others she came into contact with in HCMC have contracted the virus from her.

Seven of the nine patients being treated at Binh Thuan’s General Hospital tested negative for the first time after over half a month of treatment, while a 25-year-old man in Saigon, who was infected with the virus after having a dinner with the businesswoman, has recovered and is waiting to be discharged from Cu Chi field hospital on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry said Sunday night that three critically ill Covid-19 patients who are being treated at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi - a 64-year-old Vietnamese woman, a 69-year-old British man and a 50-year-old Vietnamese man – are getting better after days of treatment.

Doctors have had to perform blood filtration on the three patients and put them on a life support machine called Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) to allow their lungs and hearts to improve and function properly

The Vietnamese man had his breathing tube removed Saturday while the British patient, who had a history of type 2 diabetes and hypertension, is getting better and doctors are considering reducing the ventilator regime for him.

The woman who is undergoing ECMO for the tenth day has also shown positive signs. She had an underlying condition, vestibular disorder, when she was found Covid-19 positive. She experienced breathing difficulties that escalated into respiratory failure on March 15.

Amidst the recovery, six new patients linked to Hanoi's Bach Mai Hospital were confirmed Monday morning, raising Vietnam's Covid-19 count to 194. Many of the currently active cases are Vietnamese nationals returning from Europe and the U.S. and foreigners coming from the same regions.

So far, 25 patients in Vietnam have been discharged from the hospital.

The Covid-19 pandemic has killed more than 33,900 people as it spread to 199 countries and territories.