HCMC – The highly contagious Omicron variant has spread to 11 cities and provinces nationwide, with Binh Duong reporting its first Omicron-infected case. In addition, HCMC has reported three more Omicron cases.
According to the Binh Duong Department of Health, the Omicron case in the province is a Vietnamese woman, born in 1990, who returned to Vietnam from Canada through the Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCMC on January 9, the local media reported.
After landing in HCMC, she was sent to a centralized quarantine center in Chanh Nghia Ward, Thu Dau Mot City, Binh Duong Province. She underwent a PCR test and the result came back positive on January 11.
Her sample was also sent to the HCMC Pasteur Institute for genetic sequencing and the institute found that she was infected with the Omicron variant. She is now stable, without clinical symptoms.
According to the Binh Duong Department of Health, she was quarantined upon arrival, so she poses no risk of community transmission.
Director of the department Nguyen Hong Chuong said the department had employed a plan to respond to the Omicron variant.
Specifically, it asked all districts to review the number of beds at hospitals and medical centers, medical workers and equipment to prevent a shortage or overload and enhance the monitoring of community-transmitted Covid cases.
The province will also accelerate the vaccination and strive to complete administering the third dose this month.
Meanwhile, an imported Covid case, who was linked to the first three locally-infected Omicron cases in HCMC, has been found to have been infected with the Omicron variant, deputy director of the municipal Department of Health Nguyen Van Vinh Chau told VnExpress today, January 24.
The woman, 41, flew from the United States to Vietnam on January 7 and was sent to a centralized quarantine center in Khanh Hoa Province’s Nha Trang City. She had got three Covid vaccine doses.
At the time, she tested negative for Covid-19, so she was allowed to return to her house in HCMC’s Binh Thanh District on January 10. She met with three people, who were later found to be the first Omicron cases in the community in Vietnam.
The woman’s genetic sequencing result was not worked out until last weekend.
Two other newly-detected Omicron cases in HCMC are also linked to this cluster. Of whom, a man, 25, residing in Binh Thanh District, is the cousin of one of the first three locally-infected Omicron cases who lives in District 11. He has got two Covid vaccine doses and has been the doorkeeper at the house of the woman returning from the United States since December 28 last year.
Another case is a doctor at a large hospital in the city. The man, 29, lives with the locally-infected Omicron case in District 11 and has received three Covid vaccine doses.
