Print article

One suspect case of COVID-19 recorded in Da Nang

VGP – One suspect case of COVID-19 has been reported in the central coastal city of Da Nang, making it the first suspect case of community infection recorded in Viet Nam after 99 straight days without new community transmissions, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on July 24.

July 24, 2020 4:48 PM GMT+7

The suspect COVID-19 patient is being treated at the Da Nang Hospital. 

The suspect patient is a 57-year-old man residing in Lien Chieu District. 

According to the ministry, over the past month, the man has only stayed home to look after his grandchild, rarely gone out of his residential area, only met his surrounding neighbors, and had no contact with strange people.

Having a fever, cough and sputum, he visited the city’s Hospital C at 8.25am on July 20 and was diagnosed to suffer from COVID-19.

Shortly after being informed of this case, the MOH asked the Da Nang Department of Health to direct the city’s center for disease control (CDC) and Hospital C to take his sample for testing.

The first test, using the RT-PCR method, on July 23 indicated that the man is positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Another test of the sample collected later the same day also showed the same result.

Samples have been sent to the Pasteur Institute in Nha Trang city and the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Ha Noi for confirmation.

Right on Thursday night, the Da Nang Department of Health took samples for testing from people having close contact with the suspect case at Hospital C and Da Nang Hospital, along with his family members. All 102 samples of those people tested negative for SARS-CoV-2.

The department has also requested relevant units to conduct epidemiological investigations to identify others with close contact with the suspect patient, quarantine them, and localize the related areas.

More information on the case will be provided as soon as confirmatory testing results are available, the MOH said./.

By Vien Nhu