British oil expert is Vietnam's latest Covid-19 patient

The new patient has raised Vietnam's infection tally to 271 and the number of active cases to 54, ending the country's nine-day streak of staying clear of new infections.

Vietnam has, however, maintained its record of going 17 days without a community transmission.

Of the 54 active cases, 14 are relapses.

"Patient 271" is a 37-year-old British expert with the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam). He arrived at Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat International Airport on April 28 with 12 other experts on a private jet.

All of them were placed under quarantine upon arrival in Can Gio District and had tested negative upon arrival, the Health Ministry said.

On May 2, they were tested again and one tested positive. He has been moved for treatment to the city's Cu Chi Field Hospital.

Of three critically-ill Covid-19 patients in the country, an 88-year-old Hung Yen woman under treatment in Hanoi, Vietnam’s oldest patient, has tested negative once. The condition of a 64-year-old Hanoi woman has improved slightly while that of a 43-year-old British man in HCMC remains critical.

More than 30,000 people are quarantined in the country – 246 suspected patients in hospitals specialized for Covid-19 treatment, over 5,700 at centralized facilities and the rest at home.

The Covid-19 pandemic has spread to 212 countries and territories, with more than 245,000 deaths reported so far.