A quarantine area of the Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases Hospital in central Quảng Trị Province. — Photo tinhuyquangtri.vn

A porridge shop owner in the central province of Quảng Trị was mistakenly forced into quarantine after a COVID-19 patient said she had visited the shop for dinner.

It took three days in the local concentrated quarantine centre for the shop owner to realise her stay there had to be a blunder.

She remembered she had closed her shop, Ngọc Lan, on the day the patient said she had been there for dinner.

After she related her story back to authorities, the patient realised she had given the wrong name of the porridge shop.

Nguyễn Đức Sâm, chairman of Phong Bình Commune’s People’s Committee, said Patient 833, who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on August 9, reported that she went to Ngọc Lan porridge shop at 7.30pm on August 4 for dinner.

The patient was urged to retrace her travel history and realised she had actually went to Ngọc Lý porridge shop instead, located right next door to Ngọc Lan.

Ngọc Lý’s shop owner and the employee who had actually come into contact with the patient were immediately quarantined.

Those who had contact with these two people have been traced and asked to self-quarantine at home.

And the unlucky woman, who was wrongly quarantined due to the patient’s mistake, will have to stay in the quarantine centre for 14 days until she’s given the all-clear.

Let’s hope no other COVID-19 patients will make the same mistake and the two porridge shop owners differentiate their branding a tad. — VNS