Vietnam starts fifth day without new Covid-19 case, one patient relapses

The Health Ministry confirmed zero fresh cases Wednesday morning, keeping the nation’s Covid-19 tally at 270 since Friday evening.

But one more relapse was recorded late Tuesday. "Patient 151," a Brazilian woman in HCMC, tested positive after being discharged and was transferred to the Cu Chi field hospital for further monitoring.

The new relapse raised the number of active cases in the country to 49, 11 of whom have tested negative once and eight twice.

The ministry announced Tuesday that examination of samples taken from five other relapse patients showed the virus was "inactive" in their bodies, which theoretically meant the chance of them spreading the infection to others was "very low."

Addressing a government meeting Tuesday afternoon, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that at this point, with an infection rate of 270 among more than 95 million residents, Vietnam has "basically put the pandemic under control."

So far, the country has conducted 213,743 new coronavirus tests, and Wednesday morning marks the 13th day that it has not recorded any infection caused by community transmission.

By Friday morning, Vietnam had gone eight straight days without reporting any new infection, but two new cases were confirmed that evening, both Vietnamese students returning from Japan.

Of the 270 patients recorded so far, 221 have been discharged.

The Covid-19 pandemic has spread to 210 countries and territories, and more than 217,700 deaths reported.