Vietnam records no new coronavirus infection Monday evening

The country has recorded 271 coronavirus cases to date, of which 50 are active. The active cases include 14 relapses.

On Monday, the northern province of Ninh Binh's Ninh Binh General Hospital discharged its last two Covid-19 patients, and two relapsed patients were confirmed by the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi to have recovered.

The Health Ministry said three of the active cases continued to be in critical condition.

An 88-year-old woman of Hung Yen Province under treatment in Hanoi, Vietnam’s oldest patient, has tested negative once. "Patient 161" did not have a fever on Monday, but is on ventilator support.

Doctors have been helping her to practice breathing normally again. Her communication is slow and the left side of her body remains paralyzed. The edema on her left arm and eyelids have reduced. She gets physical therapy twice a day.  

The condition of a 64-year-old Hanoi woman, "Patient 20", has improved slightly. She still needs the support of a ventilator, but did not have a fever on Monday. She has been Vietnam’s longest-standing Covid-19 patient, undergoing treatment for almost 60 days, 54 of them in intensive care unit. 

"Patient 91", a 43-year-old British man in Ho Chi Minh City remains "a very critical case," the ministry said. He did not have a fever on Monday and is still sedated. Doctors have had to drain pneumothorax from his lungs. He has had a mix of test results, both negative and positive. His latest result on April 30 came out negative for the novel coronavirus.

The country had stayed clear of new Covid-19 patients nine days in a row as of Sunday morning. In the evening, a 37-year-old British oil expert who had arrived in HCMC April 28 to work on a Petrovietnam project was confirmed infected.

"Patient 271" is a relapse case, who had tested Covid-19 positive in the U.K., then negative after 14 days of isolating himself at home, before coming to HCMC and testing positive again. He is currently under treatment in the city's Cu Chi field hospital.

After his case was confirmed, HCMC authorities have decided that everyone arriving in the city from abroad will be quarantined for 14 days and tested on the first, fifth, 10th and last days of isolation, two times more than the protocol prescribed by the ministry. 

Vietnam has gone through 18 days without a community transmission case. As of Monday, most students in the country had started attending classes at school after an unprecedented, prolonged break due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The pandemic has spread to 212 countries and territories, with more than 244,500 deaths reported so far.