Vietnam enters day 26 without Covid-19 community infection

The nation’s Covid-19 tally has stayed at 288 since last Thursday, and the number of active cases dropped to 39 after eight more patients recovered in Hanoi Monday.

Among the active cases, 11 have tested negative at least twice and eight once.

"Patient 91," a 43-year-old British man, continues to be the most critical Covid-19 case so far in the country, but experts said Monday that his lungs have not been damaged to the extent of needing a transplant. The health ministry had said at a meeting last week that a lung transplant was being considered for the man who works as a pilot for Vietnam Airlines.

Hospitalized since March 20, he was on a ventilator for 16 days and, for 36 days, put on a life support machine called Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), which involves pumping blood out of the body to a heart-lung machine that removes carbon dioxide and sends oxygen-filled blood back.

As of Tuesday morning, more than 12,000 returning or coming from abroad, or those who had come into close contact with those arrivals were under quarantine in Vietnam, with 329 in hospitals, over 6,000 at centralized facilities and the rest at home or accommodation facilities.

The Covid-19 pandemic has spread to 212 countries and territories thus far, and reported deaths have reached almost 287,000.