Student returning from UK is ‘Patient 241’

"Patient 241" is a resident of the Thao Dien area in HCMC’s District 2. On March 21, he flew home from London on Vietnam Airlines flight VN0050, landing at the Can Tho Airport in the Mekong Delta on March 22. 

He was asymptomatic on arrival and sent to a centralized quarantine facility at a military school in southern Bac Lieu Province. 

His swab samples tested negative for Covid-19 on March 25, but on March 31, he developed fever and had a sore throat. A day later, he was taken to the Bac Lieu General Hospital for treatment and a testing of his samples showed he was infected with the novel coronavirus.

Nine people in the same room at the quarantine facility continue to be asymptomatic, but their health is being monitored closely and they are quarantined for another 14 days.

Of the 241 Covid-19 cases in Vietnam, 91 have been discharged. Many of the 150 active cases are Vietnamese nationals returning from abroad, mostly from Europe and the U.S., and more than 60 people are related to the two major Covid-19 hotspots in the country – the Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi and Buddha Bar & Grill in Ho Chi Minh City.

The Covid-19 pandemic has spread to more than 200 countries and territories, claiming more than 64,000 lives.