HCMC confirms two more Covid-19 community transmissions

Updated: 19:35, 01/12/2020

A nephew and a student of "Patient 1347," Vietnam’s first community transmission in 88 days, have tested positive for the new coronavirus.

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Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long confirmed this at a Tuesday meeting on the fight against Covid-19.

The nephew is a one-year-old toddler who’d been taken to the house of "Patient 1347" on four different days (November 22, 23, 25 and 27).

A woman has her swab sample taken for Covid-19 tests as she lives near "Patient 1347" in HCMC's District 6, November 12, 2020.

The student is a 28-year-old woman who attended a class taught by "Patient 1347" on one of two campuses of the Key English language center.

The two new patients have not yet been given patient number tags.

The English teacher is a 32-year-old resident of District 6 who was confirmed positive for the novel coronavirus Monday.

His nephew and student tested positive when in quarantine. HCMC’s health authorities had tracked down all people that have come into close contact with the teacher who’d contracted the virus from his friend, a Vietnam Airlines flight attendant confirmed last Saturday as "Patient 1342."

The flight attendant had returned to Vietnam on November 14 and was quarantined for four days at a facility managed by the airline in HCMC. After two tests showed he was negative for the coronavirus, he was asked to remain quarantined at his home in Tan Binh District. At home, he came into contact with his mother and two friends, including the English teacher who came to stay with him.

Health officials and Vietnam Airlines representatives have blamed the flight attendant for violating home quarantine rules, which require people to avoid close contact, stay in an isolated room or keep a distance of at least two meters from other people.

The teacher had ended a streak of 88 days with no community transmissions of the novel coronavirus in Vietnam and 120 days in HCMC.

Following contact tracing, four teachers working at the Vo Van Tan and Nguyen Hue primary schools in HCMC's District 6 have been confirmed F1 (first generation infection) suspects, forcing 2,000 students of the two schools to stay home starting Monday.

Forty-eight students and four teachers of one class at the Nguyen Thi Minh Khai High School in District 3 have also been asked to stay home after one of the students attended one of "Patient 1347"’s classes.