Five new cases push Vietnam's Covid-19 count up to 212

"Patient 208" is a 38-year-old woman who works for the Truong Sinh Company, the food and logistic services provider to the Bach Mai Hospital that has been implicated as an outbreak hotspot.

"Patient 209," 55, resides in Duc Giang Commune, Long Bien District, Hanoi. She works as a cook at Petrolimex Hanoi Co., Ltd in Duc Giang. Between March 18 and 24, she had come into close contact with "Patient 163" at the company’s canteen. "Patient 163" is a 43-year-old Vietnamese woman who is the granddaughter of "Patient 161" and lives in Hanoi’s Long Bien District. She was a caretaker for her grandmother at the Bach Mai Hospital.

So far, the 209th patient's husband, two sons, her mother and a housemaid are in quarantine.

Wednesday morning’s additions raise the number of cases associated with the Bach Mai Hospital, now the nation’s largest infection hotspot, to at least 36; 24 of them are employees of the Truong Sinh Company.

The remaining three new cases are all Vietnamese returning from abroad.

"Patient 210" is a 26-year-old woman from Can Loc District in Ha Tinh Province in central Vietnam. She returned to Vietnam from Thailand on March 20 after she had met with "Patient 201," also a Truong Sinh employee. Upon arrival, she was quarantined at a camp in Ha Tinh and has tested positive. She is now undergoing treatment at the Cau Treo General Hospital in the province.

"Patient 211," 23, lives on Chua Lang Street, Lang Thuong Ward, Dong Da District, Hanoi. She is a student in the U.S. On March 20, she returned to Vietnam after transiting in Abu Dhabi and Bangkok and was sent to a quarantine camp in Ninh Binh Province in northern Vietnam. Her test results came back positive four days later. She is undergoing treatment at the Ninh Binh General Hospital.

"Patient 212" is a 35-year-old woman in Hung Ha District, Thai Binh Province. She flew back to Vietnam with her husband on Aeroflot flight SU290 from Moscow on March 27. The couple was quarantined in the northern province of Vinh Phuc. She felt tired and ran a fever on March 29. After she was confirmed infected, she was transferred to the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi’s Dong Anh District. No updated information was available on her husband.

Of the 212 Covid-19 patients confirmed in Vietnam until now, 58 have been discharged from hospitals.

Most of the active cases are those who have returned from Europe and the U.S. and people who’ve had close contact with them.

The Covid-19 pandemic has spread to 202 countries and territories, claiming over 42,000 lives.