>>> Hai Duong city imposes social distancing measures after three COVID-19 cases confirmed
>>> Six new cases, one more COVID-19-related death reported
>>> Another 12 COVID-19 patients given all-clear
Known as Patients No. 613, 628, 642, 667 and 687, all were treated at the city’s Hoa Vang Field Hospital and were released after showing multiple negative test results for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
After their discharge, they will continue to practice self-isolation at their residences under health monitoring by the local health authority over the next 14 days.
A day earlier, Hoa Vang Field Hospital also released 10 patients, including an 8-month baby – the youngest COVID-19 patient in Vietnam so far, following their full recovery.
As of this morning, 20 patients in the city have been given the all-clear.
The latest recoveries bring the total in Vietnam to 430 among a total of 911 COVID-19 cases so far. The nation has reported 21 related deaths.
* Also this morning, 183 Vietnamese nationals finished their 14-day quarantine at the Hanoi-based National Hospital for Tropical Diseases, after being repatriated from Equatorial Guinea on July 29.
They are among a total of 219 Vietnamese citizens returning home from Equatorial Guinea on the same repatriation flight, with several cases confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus.
 |
Vietnamese citizens repatriated from Equatorial Guinea finish their 14-day quarantine this morning. (Photo: Ministry of Health)
After two weeks of medical isolation, the hospital handed discharge papers to the 183 citizens, after they had minimum three negative tests for SARS-CoV-2 each.
According to doctor Vu Minh Dien, Head of the hospital’s Quality Control Department, initially there was information that 120 among the 219 citizens had tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, when the hospital re-tested them using the RT-PCR technique, only 22 cases were confirmed.
Among the returnees, 15 were confirmed to have malaria, of which six had contracted both malaria and COVID-19. Up until now, all the patients have progressed well and the six co-infection cases also tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 at least twice.
* In Hoa Binh Province, 75 citizens returning from Russia also completed their 14-day quarantine and were discharged from a local isolation camp in Hoa Binh City today.
They had four negative tests for COVID-19 each. The Hoa Binh authorities arranged coaches to bring them home to continue performing self-isolation for 14 days.
* On the morning of August 14, the People's Committee of Quang Nam Province issued a decision to extend social distancing measures under the Prime Minister's Directive No. 16/CT-TTg dated March 31, 2020 on four localities with COVID-19 cases in the province to strengthen the prevention and control of the epidemic, starting from 0:00 on August 15.
Accordingly, social distancing measures will continue to be imposed on Dien Ban Town and the three districts of Dai Loc, Duy Xuyen and Thang Binh, with strict disease preventive measures being applied.
 |
A medical worker takes a sample from a local in Luu Minh residential area in Ha Lam Town, Thang Binh District, Quang Nam Province. (Photo: NDO/Tan Nguyen)
Local residents are asked to stay at home and only go out for essential needs. Public gatherings are limited to two people and a minimum distance of two metres between each other outdoors must be maintained.
* Regarding the new outbreak in Hai Duong City in the northern province of Hai Duong, the Hai Duong Provincial Department of Transport on August 14 asked for a suspension of passenger transport by car in Hai Duong City from August 14 until further notice.
Interprovincial fixed passenger transport routes, contract trucks, passenger cars and taxis with a route through Hai Duong City are not allowed to stop in the province’s capital city or the local epidemic-hit areas to pick up and drop off passengers.
The decision came after the three latest COVID-19 cases were confirmed in the province. Social distancing regulations have been imposed across Hai Duong City as from 0:00 today.
On the same day, the Ministry of Health issued a dispatch, assigning the Hanoi Medical University Hospital and the National Children's Hospital to support the Hai Duong health sector with epidemiological investigation, zoning, isolation, sampling and testing for COVID-19, focusing on groups of local residents returning from Da Nang, suspected cases and close contacts with the local COVID-19 confirmed patients.
