HCM City Hospital for tropical disease where a 21-year-old man was treated for COVID-19 for a second time. He has since recovered again from coronavirus but remains at the hospital under quarantine. — VNA/VNS Photo Đinh Hằng

HÀ NỘI — A patient who relapsed after recovering from COVID-19 has once again been given the all-clear after a second round of treatment.

The announcement was made by the treatment sub-committee under the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control on Tuesday, bringing the recovered cases to 264, out of the total 324 cases so far in Việt Nam.

Patient No 92 is a 21-year-old man of Vietnamese nationality. He tested positive after being declared recovered on April 14. During his treatment and care at HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases, he tested negative consecutively from April 30 to May 13. He will still be under quarantine and monitoring for the next 14 days.

So far, Việt Nam has reported no new cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the community for 33 days straight. A total of 184 are imported cases. Two cases have had one negative test for SARS-CoV-2 and six cases have tested negative twice.

Up to 11,326 are under quarantine at hospitals, health facilities and at home.

Việt Nam attends online meeting

In another development, Deputy Minister of Health, Nguyễn Thanh Long, attended the online meeting of the 73rd World Health Assembly on Monday and Tuesday.

World leaders attending and speaking at the assembly included Chinese President Xi Jinping, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. World leaders said it was time for the world to work together to unite against pandemic by promoting technological advances such as vaccines and COVID-19 therapies and pledging to fund COVID-19 prevention fund through the World Health Organisation, GAVI (Global Vaccination Alliance) and other multilateral organisations to ensure everyone has access to testing, treatment and vaccine supply once the vaccine is produced.

On behalf of Việt Nam, Deputy Minister of Health Long gave a speech on the prevention and response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Việt Nam.

He said that with high political determination "to fight against the pandemic as against the enemy", the Vietnamese Government had consistently implemented many flexible measures. He also said that up to now, Việt Nam has controlled the spread of the disease, with no deaths recorded.

Việt Nam has actively shared information and experience in COVID-19 prevention and control, always ensuring information transparency with WHO and other countries around the world through the International Health Regulations (IHR), he said.

Việt Nam also highly appreciated WHO's technical assistance in COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control through the issuance of recommendations and technical documents related to treatment, surveillance, infection control and testing, as well as organising online conferences to share information and experience in COVID-19 pandemic prevention, he added.

Long called on nations to unite to fight against the common enemy, the COVID-19 pandemic. He also called for further dialogue and co-operation mechanisms to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and address common challenges for peace and stability around the world.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic had caused great damage to countries around the world, it was also an opportunity for countries to reconsider their capabilities at the request of IHR (2005) including policies, surveillance, risk assessment, laboratories, infection prevention and control, clinical management, risk communication and resources to make recommendations to strengthen these competencies in the near future, Long said. — VNS