Health workers collecting tests from traders at Ngã Tư Sở market in Hà Nội on Sunday. The authorities are conducting mass tests for traders and customers at some major markets in the city as part of the national efforts to contain the pandemic. — VNA/VNS Photo Huy Hùng

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam has recorded no new COVID-19 cases in the last three and a half days but one recovered patient has tested positive again for the virus three days after she was released from hospital.

After being discharged from hospital in Hà Nam Province on April 16, the 44-year-old woman was put in home isolation in Chương Mỹ District of Hà Nội for another 14 days.

On April 17, she complained of coughing and chest pains despite having a normal body temperature and no running nose, prompting Hà Nội Centre for Disease Control (CDC) to come and take her samples, which tested positive for the virus on April 18.

Chương Mỹ District’s health centre has identified all those who have had direct contact with the woman including her husband and daughter, and a driver that transported her home from Hà Nam hospital.

A number of samples have been collected from each of them.

Twelve other people have been identified as coming into contact with these three people and told to self-isolate at home.

Streets in the vicinity of where she lives have been disinfected, and officials are tracking and tracing other people who may have been exposed to the virus.

She has been moved to Hà Nội’s Đông Anh District campus of the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases for treatment.

Sunday also saw two Vietnamese patients in the southern province of Bạc Liêu – patient No. 156 and patient No. 241 – cleared of the novel strain of the coronavirus, which means the country only has 66 active cases remaining in treatment.

Thirteen patients in hospital have tested negative for the SARS-CoV-2 virus once, while seven have tested negative for the virus twice.

To date, 268 COVID-19 cases have been reported in Việt Nam, with 160 cases – accounting for 59.7 per cent of the total – being imported cases either Vietnamese returning from abroad or foreigners and the remaining 108 are local transmission cases.

62,998 people are being quarantined – at hospitals, concentrated quarantine camps, or in home isolation – across the country.

Meanwhile, the condition of the British pilot in HCM City, continues to stabilise and he is no longer showing signs of internal bleeding, the National Committee on Prevention and Combating the COVID-19 reported on Sunday.

He is no longer suffering from a high temperature and his lung functions are improving, however, he still requires an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine for cardiac and respiratory support.

Notably, both swab tests of samples taken from his nose and throat have returned negative for the virus.

Patient No.161, an 88-year-old woman connected to Hà Nội’s Bạch Mai Hospital cluster with numerous underlying health issues – including hemiplegia, cerebral haemorrhage, and a history of having a stroke – is currently on non-intrusive ventilation. She is able to communicate with doctors and nurses, albeit slowly.

The committee noted that all serious COVID-19 cases are receiving ample medical attention, especially the expertise from the country’s leading doctors from major hospitals across the country via telehealth.

Việt Nam is one of three countries in the world registering more than 200 COVID-19 patients but no deaths. — VNS