Saigon man is Vietnam's 48th Covid-19 patient

The latest patient, the third active case in HCMC and Vietnam's 48th, resides in District 10. He and a 25-year-old man living in Tan Binh District, who was confirmed positive for the coronavirus Friday night, had met a businesswoman in the central province of Binh Thuan on March 3.

On March 11, after the 51-year-old woman was confirmed positive for Covid-19, the 31-year-old man was asked to be quarratined at home.

On March 13, he was sent to a health center in District 10 for further quaratining and his samples taken for Covid-19 tests. He had no symptoms then and his health remained stable.

Test results that came out Friday night from the city's Hospital of Tropical Diseases showed he was Covid-19 positive. The samples were then transferred to the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City Saturday for a double check and he was reconfirmed infected Saturday morning.

The Binh Thuan businesswoman had flown from Ho Chi Minh City to New York on February 22, transiting at the Incheon International Airport in South Korea for three hours.

On February 29, she flew back from Washington D.C., transiting at the Doha International Airport in Qatar. She landed at the Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCMC on March 2 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. Four days later, she was admitted to the Binh Thuan General Hospital and placed under quarantine pending Covid-19 tests. She was confirmed positive on March 10.

She has spread the virus to at least eight people, two of whom spread it to two others.

So far, Binh Thuan has recorded nine infection cases, making it the worst hit locality in the country.

Vietnam is treating 32 Covid-19 patients, including 11 foreigners. The country had earlier discharged 16 patients from hospital.