Two passengers wear face masks at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi. Another passenger on Vietnam Airlines flight VN0054 has tested positive for coronavirus - PHOTO: VNA

According to the Ministry of Health, the man flew to Hanoi from the United Kingdom on Vietnam Airlines flight VN0054 on March 2. He later travelled to the central province of Quang Nam.

The Quang Nam Center for Disease Control sent the patient’s specimen to the Pasteur Institute in Nha Trang for testing which found that he caught the virus. The patient is being treated at a general hospital in Quang Nam and is in stable condition.

Among the 15 new cases, a patient returned from Daegu City, South Korea’s epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, and 12 patients were passengers on the VN0054 flight.

N.H.N.’s 27-year-old family chauffer and her 64-year-old aunt also caught the virus from her. In addition, a 61-year-old man who was seated near her on the flight contracted the virus.

On March 8, nine foreign nationals who travelled on the flight also tested positive for the virus. Seven of them are from England, one from Ireland and one from Mexico, aged from 58 to 74.

27 people in contact with Vietnam's Patient 17 cleared of coronavirus

A section of Truc Bach Street in Hanoi's Ba Dinh District, where Vietnam’s 17th coronavirus patient lives, is disinfected by the military on March 7 – PHOTO: VNA

At least 27 people who came in contact with Vietnam’s coronavirus Patient 17 have tested negative for the pathogen. They are now under quarantine in the northern province of Hai Duong, the south-central province of Khanh Hoa and HCMC.

The coronavirus test results for the five people, who are being held in isolation in Khanh Hoa, came back negative, according to Bui Xuan Minh, director of the provincial Health Department.

Minh told the Vietnam News Agency on Sunday that they are all healthy, without any symptoms of cough or fever.

Among them, four British tourists are subject to a 14-day quarantine – two at a resort in the province’s capital city of Cam Ranh and two at a resort in Ninh Hoa Town.

The foreigners travelled on the same flight with N.H.N., Hanoi’s first coronavirus patient, from London to the Vietnamese capital city early this month. They have been in Khanh Hoa Province since March 2.

Meanwhile, the remaining case was a Vietnamese doctor from the Hanoi-based National Hospital for Tropical Diseases who conducted a medical examination on the 26-year-old N. While he was visiting his relatives in Khanh Hoa, he heard of the news about Patient 17 and then came to the Khanh Hoa Hospital for Tropical Diseases for isolation.

Since January 9, healthcare workers in the province have isolated a total of 466 people suspected of having contracted the deadly virus. Among them, only one female patient tested positive for the virus and was later cured of it and discharged from hospital on February 4.

In HCMC, 20 people who were passengers on the same flight as N. were also confirmed as negative for the virus, according to the municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

They comprise four Vietnamese residents in HCMC, one Vietnamese Australian and 15 foreign tourists. Upon arrival in Hanoi from London, they boarded another flight to the southern city on March 2.

City authorities noted that five other foreign tourists who were on the same flight to HCMC took a trip to Cambodia on March 4. Among them, one tourist was seated in the same business-class cabin as N.

Given the high risk of infection, the tourist is being quarantined on a Viking Cruise ship for coronavirus testing.

Two natives in the northern province of Hai Duong, who were on the same flight as the 17th coronavirus patient tested negative for the deadly pathogen as well, according to the provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The center also kept four workers at a local industrial park under quarantine on Sunday. Earlier, they offered interior repairs for the house at 125 Truc Bach Street in Hanoi's Ba Dinh District, where Patient 17 lives.

Officials indicated that they are in stable condition, and their test samples are being processed.

Nine foreign nationals on the same flight as N. were found to have contracted the virus on Sunday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Vietnam to 30, with 16 of them cured and discharged from hospital.

SGT/VNA/VNN

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