Samples collected for COVID-19 testing at Hà Nội Centre for Disease Control. Photo for illustration. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Two more people have died of COVID-19 complications, taking the death toll in Việt Nam since the beginning of the pandemic to 66.

The latest fatalities are men aged 53 and 80. The two of them were both being treated for a number of underlying health conditions.

The 53-year-old was living in Yên Lạc District, the northern province of Vĩnh Phúc. He was being treated for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma since September 2020 and had undergone nine chemotherapy sessions at the Tân Triều facility of the National Cancer Hospital in Hà Nội.

He tested positive for COVID-19 while at the hospital and had been transferred to the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hà Nội where his conditions worsened and he was moved to the Intensive Care Unit.

He died in the early morning of June 19 and his cause of death has been recorded as septic shock, pneumonia, COVID-19 in patients with treatment-resistant non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, hypertension, and renal failure.

The second patient, from Ninh Xá in the northern city of Bắc Ninh, also died on the same day. He had a history of hypertension, kidney failure and asthma.

After suffering from a severe cough and fever on May 21, he tested positive for COVID-19 on May 25 and was moved from Bắc Ninh Provincial General Hospital to the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

The condition of his lungs rapidly deteriorated and due to his advanced age and weak health, he did not respond to treatment.

His cause of death has been noted as multi-organ failure, pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2 in patients with renal failure, hypertension, heart failure and bronchial asthma.

The two new deaths brought the COVID-19 casualties in Việt Nam's fourth wave of infections (since late April) to 31. — VNS