Hải Châu General Hospital, where the 418th patient came for check-up on July 17. — Photo thuocdantoc.com

HÀ NỘI — The latest patient to be infected with COVID-19 through a community transmission has not travelled out of his home city for a month, and has had no contact with any foreigners.

The information was released Sunday by the Đà Nẵng Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control who were investigating the movements of the 61-year-old before he tested positive for coronavirus.

The man, who lives in Thanh Bình Ward, Hải Châu District with his wife and daughter, visited the same café near his house every morning after breakfast, his family told officials.

He also visited the Intensive Care Unit of Đà Nẵng Hospital on July 5 where his father was being treated.

A little under a week after visited his father, he began to feel unwell, started coughing and developed a fever. He also started to lose weight.

He asked his son-in-law to drive him for a check-up at a private clinic on Đinh Tiên Hoàng Road in Hải Châu District.  Two days later, on July 17, he didn’t feel any better and went to the Hải Châu District Hospital’s Emergency Department.

Then he went to the emergency department of Đà Nẵng Hospital by himself and was hospitalised at the Respiratory Department, room 506 and diagnosed with pneumonia.

On July 23, he was moved to the ICU of Đà Nẵng Hospital.

He is currently on ventilator and in a severe conditions. Health officials are working with local authorities to investigate further his travel history and anyone he had contact with.

All the places he had visited have since been closed, and are being monitored.

Meanwhile, the health of patient 416, a 57-year-old man also from Đà Nẵng who tested positive on Saturday, has deteriorated.

Doctors at the Đà Nẵng Hospital are treating him using Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) and filtering his blood. 

Of all the people who have contracted the virus so far, 365 have been given the all-clear, accounting for 87.3 per cent and no fatalities have been reported.

At present, 11,187 people are placed under medical surveillance, of whom 220 are at hospitals, 10,193 centralised quarantine camps, and 774 at places of residence.

Social distancing for Đà Nẵng City

Earlier Sunday morning, Đà Nẵng City’s People’s Committee announced a number of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.

The city asked its residents to wear masks when going out, wash their hands with soaps, keep a safe distance when in contact with others, and not gather in a crowd of more than 30 people.

The Steering Committee is also proposing that all local residents must inform the authorities if they are planning to leave the central city.

All ceremonies, including religious ceremonies and sporting events as well as events with many people in a public place will be temporarily suspended.

Non-essential business activities like entertainment centres, beauty salons and spas, karaoke, massage and discotheques will be temporarily closed.

For other service businesses, strict measures to prevent the virus must be implemented like taking temperatures of customers and providing sufficient hygiene materials.

The number of students in a classroom has to be reduced to make sure not too many students are gathered in the same place and online education can be put in place.

For social-economic or politic events that need to be organised, local authorities have to ensure strict infection control measures. — VNS