Health workers take blood samples for test at Hạ Lôi Village, Mê Linh District, Hà Nội. VNA/VNS Photo Minh Quyết

HÀ NỘI – Two people living in the same village on the outskirts of Hà Nội are the latest patients to test positive for COVID-19.

The total number of people who have contracted coronavirus nationwide now stands at 260. More than half of those, 144 people, have made a full recovery after treatment.

Patient 259 is a 41-year-old woman whose husband had previously tested positive for the virus. The authorities say she also regularly buys flowers from another patient’s house in Hạ Lôi Village, Mê Linh.

After her husband tested positive she was taken into quarantine and learned on Saturday she too had coronavirus.

Patient 260 is a 35-year-old woman from the same village. Officials say she was a regular visitor to the local market, often bought meat from a butcher in Duong Village, and would tend to flowers in a field nearby.

Both women are being treated at the Hospital for Tropical Disease in Đông Anh District.

In total, eight people have tested positive with connections to Ha Loi Village. The entire community where more than 11,000 people live has been locked down and 270 residents have been tested.

It understood the outbreak in the area started through patient 243 who had travelled between Ha Loi and the capital many times to visit a relative at Bạch Mai Hospital, which was also a hotspot for COVID-19.

Meanwhile, eight people remain in a serious condition, including a British pilot who is on a life-support machine.

The 43-year-old, who works for the national carrier Vietnam Airlines, lives in District 2 in HCM City. Medics say he has shown no signs of improvement over the past few days.

He is currently being treated at the Hospital for Tropical Disease where his condition is described as critical, suffering from Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia.-- VNS