Lockdown enforced at Đình Tràng Street, Phủ Lý City, Hà Nam Province. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Tuấn

HÀ NAM — Authorities of Hà Nam Province are tracing contacts of a man who tested positive for coronavirus after arriving in South Korea.

Nguyễn Trọng Khải, deputy head of Hà Nam Province’s health department, said Wednesday that after receiving confirmation from the South Korean authorities regarding the COVID-19 case of a 24-year-old male N.N.C in Kim Bảng District, the health workers have set up surveillance zone around his residence and identified 68 people who he came into contact with.

According to Khải, N.N.C went to South Korea on August 20 on a flight with a fellow Vietnamese from the northern province of Hải Phòng, also confirmed SARS-CoV-2 positive by health authorities there.

Both of them are not listed in the Vietnamese health ministry's COVID-19 registry as of Tuesday morning.

Before departing to South Korea, N.N.C worked in Hà Nội and left for his hometown, also held a farewell party at his home and at a restaurant.

Fifty six close contacts (F1 cases) in Hà Nam were placed under quarantine and had their specimens taken to be tested for COVID-19.

The province’s health workers are coordinating with counterparts in other localities to locate identified F1 cases and place them under medical observation.

Meanwhile, the man on the same flight was confirmed by Hải Phòng City’s authorities to be a student who was repatriated from South Korea back in March. The man had visited Đà Nẵng City and Quảng Nam Province, the country's COVID-19 epicentre, on July 24-27, but had been self-isolating at his home.

He returned to South Korea on August 20 to continue his studies but tested positive for coronavirus. He is currently in a stable condition. Hải Phòng has identified 25 people he had first hand contact with and a further 197 people who came into contact with those people. So far, 25 have tested negative for SARS-CoV-2. — VNS