ĐÀ NẴNG — Three COVID-19 patients – two British (numbers 22 and 23) and a local woman (number 35) – have been released from Đà Nẵng General Hospital after three weeks of treatment.

The two British patients will be under quarantine two weeks at an isolation site in the city before returning home, while the local woman will be isolated at home under strict supervision from medical staff.

The two British patients – who were taken to hospital on March 8 – and the Vietnamese patient had not suffered from COVID-19 typical symptoms like fevers, coughing or trouble breathing during treatment, while X-rays of their lungs showed they were in a normal state, according to doctors.

They are the first COVID-19 cases to have recovered after treatment at the central city’s hospital.

“All three patients have fully recovered after three weeks of treatment. They were showing signs of recovery last week, but we scrutinised them further just to be safe,” said Doctor Lê Đức Nhân, director of the hospital.

“Medical staff will keep an eye on the patients for the next two weeks while they're in quarantine,” he said.

He said doctors and medical staff had received support and aid from local people and the city to care for the first COVID-19 patients.

“I’m so happy to see patients leaving the hospital. We finished a tough job, and we’ll continue the fight COVID-19 and protect people from infection,” said Doctor Phạm Ngọc Hàm, head of the tropical medicine department at the hospital.

“Doctors and nurses have worked hard for 20 days to help the patients overcome their critical conditions. It’s the biggest prize for us when we saw patients leaving their beds healthy after three weeks of treatment.”

A report from the city’s health department released on March 13 said 218 samples of people who had close contact with the three COVID-19 patients in Đà Nẵng and Quảng Nam Province had all tested negative.

According to the latest report from the city, 1,123 people were in quarantine at medical centres, hotels and households, while 1,858 medical samples had tested negative for COVID-19. — VNS