The authorities set up fences in front of the house of patient 1694. Photo: Doan Bong

The man is a worker at a factory of the Ministry of Defense based in Dong Anh district in Hanoi.

On January 16, the man went to Kinh Mon district, Hai Duong for a wedding party, where he had close contact with a COVID-19 patient, according to the Hanoi Centre for Disease Control.

He displayed symptoms of cough, fatigue and headache and went to the medical centre of Nam Tu Liem district to report his travel history on January 29. His sample test result turned out positive for the coronavirus SARS-Cov-2 on January 30. The man is now under treatment at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases No. 2 in Dong Anh district.

On the same day, the Ministry of Health confirmed a new patient – No. 1695, a 34-year-old worker, a colleague and F1 of the patient 1694.

On January 31, seven other F1 cases of this patient, including two colleagues at his factory (patients 1724 and 1725) and five family members of the patient, including his father, mother, wife, sister-in-law and his son, a 3rd grader (patients 1719 to 1723).

On February 1, a barber who had contact with patient 1723 was confirmed with Covid-19. This is the first person who was F2 of patient 1694 to be positive for SARS-CoV-2.

The next day, three other F2 cases, including the father and mother of patient 1725 in Me Linh district (patients 1823 and 1824) and a worker (patient 1826) who is colleague of patient 1724 was also confirmed positive for SARS-CoV-2.

Within three days, the authorities tracked 12 cases of Covid-19 transmitted from patient 1694.

Thr genetic analysis report of Covid-19 cases in Hai Duong province, the country’s Covid-19 hotspot, showed that these patients carried a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 discovered in the UK.

The new strain of virus has the ability to adhere to cells on the human body more strongly, increasing the infectious ability by 70% compared to the old strain and the infection cycle is shortened to only 2-3 days instead of 5-6 days as before.

The previous "record" of Covid-19 superinfection belonged to patient 34 in the central province of Binh Thuan, who directly transmitted the virus to 11 cases.

Thuy Hanh

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