Huế Central Hospital in Thừa Thiên-Huế Province where the first death related to COVID-19 was reported.. — Photo courtesy of the hospital

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam has recorded its first COVID-19-related death, a 70-year-old man with a number of underlying conditions.

The patient died on Friday morning of a heart attack at Huế Central Hospital in Thừa Thiên Huế Province, where he was being treated for coronavirus.

The man, a resident of Hội An Town, also had a number of other health issues including serious kidney failure, hypertension and high blood pressure.

On July 9 he was admitted to department of internal medicine and urology at Đà Nẵng Hospital after suffering from chest pains.

Three weeks later, as more and more cases emerged linked to the hospital, he tested positive for COVID-19 and was placed in isolation on the same ward to begin treatment.

On Thursday, he started to suffer from respiratory failure and was put on a ventilator to help him breathe. He was transferred to Huế Central Hospital on Thursday night in critical conditions.

Not long later, he went into cardiac arrest but medics managed to start his heart beating again.

The following morning in the early hours he suffered another cardiac arrest, but this time doctors were unable to save him and he was pronounced dead around 5.30am Friday morning.

It is understood both his son and daughter, along with a neighbour who visited him in hospital, have all tested positive for COVID-19. — VNS