HCMC – Two local residents in Hanoi and Bac Ninh Province have been confirmed as Vietnam’s fresh Covid-19 patients by community transmission, raising the nation’s tally to 2,142 cases as of 6 p.m. today, February 12, said the Health Ministry.
The new cases, including a 25-year-old man in Bac Ninh and a 33-year-old woman in Hanoi, were found positive for the coronavirus while undergoing quarantine. They earlier had close contact with coronavirus patients.
With these two infections, the country’s number of locally-infected cases has risen to 1,248, including 555 cases recorded since January 27.
Further, the total number of recoveries remained at 1,531, and fatalities stayed at 35.
In related news, the HCMC Center for Disease Control and Prevention (HCDC) this afternoon announced that the coronavirus variant found in patients working at the HCMC-based Tan Son Nhat International Airport is A.23.1, which was first discovered in the African country of Rwanda in October last year.
Aside from Rwanda, the variant has been found in a few other countries including the U.S., the United Arab Emirates, Australia and some European countries such as the UK and Denmark. However, no abnormal developments have been reported in these countries.
Further, this variant is different from the highly transmissible one found in the UK or the one discovered in South Africa, HCDC added, citing a report of the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases on genetic analysis of the virus.
Health experts said that coronavirus patients linked to the airport might be infected with the deadly disease from one source.
