The workers arrived at National Hospital for Tropical Diseases' Campus No.2 outside Hà Nội urban area. — VNA/VNS Photo Minh Quyết

HÀ NỘI — All 219 Vietnamese workers who returned to Việt Nam from Equatorial Guinea on July 29 have been tested and only 20 tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2, vice director of National Hospital for Tropical Diseases Nguyễn Trung Cấp said on Monday.

All the COVID-19 patients were in good health, he said.

The Vietnamese workers had been stranded in the African country, with initial information asserting that nearly half of them already confirmed positive for SARS-CoV-2.

Cấp explained that many of the workers were confirmed to be suffering from COVID-19 in Equatorial Guinea but had tested negative now possibly because they had recovered from the disease.

However, health care workers were still being cautious and strictly deploying disease preventive measures to avoid risks of cross-infection, Cấp said.

He added that all nine critical patients in the group, including six patients with lung damage and three with malaria, had seen their conditions improve.

“We have been closely monitoring such complicated cases as we foresee risks if we ignore other diseases that the COVID-19 patients also have,” Cấp said, adding that so far, there were no serious complications.

The 219 workers, the flight crew of eight and four health care workers who escorted the repatriation flight were taken into quarantine at the Kim Chung branch of the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases upon their arrival in Hà Nội’s Nội Bài International Airport.

Earlier, all patients at the hospital were moved to the hospital's campus in downtown Hà Nội to make room for, and to be safe from, a large number of coronavirus carrying returnees. — VNS