Vietnam confirms its first local Covid-19 case since April

The 57-year-old patient had been in Danang city for about a month and hadn’t traveled to other provinces. He sought treatment at a hospital on 20 July for fever and cough.

Customers have their temperature checked at the entrace to a Co.opmart supermarket during a partial lockdown imposed due to the coronavirus in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. | Photographer: Maika Elan | Bloomberg

Hanoi: Vietnam confirmed its first locally-transmitted case of the coronavirus in more than three months, as authorities try to determine how he may have been infected.

The 57-year-old had been in Danang city for about a month and hadn’t traveled to other provinces, the government said in a statement on Saturday. The patient had no communication with strangers, and was mostly in contact with family members and neighbors. He sought treatment at a hospital on July 20 for fever and cough.

The Danang Center for Disease Control tested 105 people who have been connected to the patient and all were negative, while the local health authority is checking and quarantining those who’ve had close contact with him, which state-owned VTV reported may be 288 people.

The hospital in Danang — with about 947 patients and medical staff — has been locked down, VTV reported. It’s testing all patients and employees, and health officials are asking those who came in contact with the patient in the past 14 days to inform authorities and monitor their health, according to the Thanh Nien newspaper on July 24.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc ordered authorities to tighten border and immigration controls to prevent foreigners from illegally entering the country, according to a separate statement.

Vietnam has had 416 Covid-19 infections and no deaths. The case confirmed on Saturday was the first local transmission since April 16.-Bloomberg