Two medical workers tested positive for SARS-CoV-2

March 21, 2020 | 08:00

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Two female nurses of the Hanoi-based Bach Mai Hospital have become the first Vietnamese medical workers to be infected with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, raising the total number of COVID-19 cases in Vietnam to 87, the Ministry of Health announced on March 20 afternoon.

two medical workers tested positive for sars cov 2

Bach Mai Hospital (Photo: VNA)

The 86th patient is a 54-year-old nurse at the HIV Outpatient Clinic of the Bach Mai Hospital’s Centre for Tropical Diseases.

She went on a vacation with her family from Hanoi to Con Dao island in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau on March 6. They boarded flight VN7209 from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City and flight VN8059 from HCM City to Con Dao.

After returning to Hanoi on March 8, the nurse went to work as usual one day later without any symptoms.

On March 11, she started to feel tightness across her chest, without cough and fever, and was admitted to the Bach Mai Hospital’s Heart Institute (C4) to get treatment for hypertension and tightness at her chest for four days.

She was discharged from the institute on March 19. But as she was confirmed to have been in close contact with the 87th patient, she was given a COVID-19 test the same day, and the result was positive.

On March 20 afternoon, her second test also showed the positive result. She is now being treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases No. 2 in Hanoi’s outskirt district of Dong Anh.

The 87th patient is a 34-year-old nurse who is in charge of receiving people to a quarantine area of the Bach Mai Hospital's Centre for Tropical Diseases.

She exhibited symptoms like fatigue, cough and fever on March 18, and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 at the Bach Mai Hospital.

The patient was then transferred to the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases No. 2 and her second test was also positive.

Inpatients currently being treated in the Bach Mai Hospital’s Centre for Tropical Diseases have been transferred to the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases for further treatment.

VNA

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