Vietnam discharges Covid-19 ‘super spreader’

The super spreader, Dang Thi Lynh Trang, or "Patient 34," is a 51-year-old Vietnamese businesswoman residing in the south central province of Binh Thuan.

She flew from Washington D.C. to HCMC on March 2 and tested positive 10 days later for the novel coronavirus, before she led to 10 other infections.

She was released from Binh Thuan General Hospital Friday along with six other patients: her female employee, her daughter in law, her two-year-old granddaughter, her son, her husband, and an in-law.

All the patients tested negative three different times before the decision to discharge them was taken.

Two other patients in Trang’s infection circle are still under treatment at the hospital – her housemaid and the 12-year-old son of her infected employee. The boy's mother had asked to stay at the hospital to care for her son and was permitted to do so.

On behalf of her family, Trang gave flowers to the doctors and nurses, expressing gratitude for their care over the past two weeks.

Trang is the owner of a building materials company in Phan Thiet Town in Binh Thuan Province.

She was the first Covid-19 case confirmed in Binh Thuan. Aside from all the patients treated at the Binh Thuan General Hospital, she had also transmitted the virus to two men in HCMC after they met her in Phan Thiet last month. The two men, aged 25 and 31, were treated in HCMC and have been discharged from hospital.

Trang’s neighborhood in Phan Thiet was isolated for three weeks and quarantine was lifted Friday.

The seven discharges in Binh Thuan Province raise the number of Covid-19 patients released from hospitals in Vietnam to 85.

Vietnam has recorded 233 Covid-19 cases so far. 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