A sign informs people that the Hà Nội Lung Hospital has been isolated after 14 COVID-19 cases were reported on Sunday night. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI – Hà Nội Lung Hospital has been locked down for deep-cleaning and extensive testing after 14 positive coronavirus cases were detected on Sunday night.

Dr Phạm Hữu Thường, director of the hospital, said 10 patients, three health staff and a caregiver from the Department of Internal Medicine 3 submitted samples for rapid testing and came back positive to the SARS-CoV-2.

The samples have been sent to the Hà Nội Centre for Disease Control for RT-PCR testing. Of those, nine have been reconfirmed as positive for the virus, including seven patients and two medical staff.

The test results of the remaining five cases will be announced later, he said.

Thường said the source of infection is unknown. The hospital has been tracing and conducting an epidemiological investigation but there are no results as yet.

The hospital has taken samples of 323 people involved in the outbreak. Of those, 214 are patients.

The first positive COVID-19 case at the hospital was a female patient from Tây Hồ District. The woman had previously been treated for an unrelated matter at the Department of Internal Medicine where she was admitted on June 22. She was discharged from the hospital on July 22 in good health.

On July 25, she had a fever and went to the Phương Đông Hospital for a medical check-up at which point she tested positive for the virus.

Previously, in early May, two medical facilities were locked down after a cluster of infections were found at the Kim Chung facility at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Đông Anh District, and the Tân Triều facility at the National Cancer Hospital (frequently called K Hospital) in Thanh Trì District. VNS