The Vietnamese Ministry of Health has confirmed the first case positive with the novel coronavirus after 99 days without local infections as the country struggles to reboot its economy that saw a multi-year growth rate in the first half this year.

Health workers disinfect the house of a people who made close contact with Patient 416. Photo: VNA

A 57-year-old male in the central coastal city of Danang tested positive for the virus three times by the city’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Nha Trang Pasteur Institute on July 23-24. The test was confirmed by the Hanoi-based National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology last night.

The information was revealed by Standing Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long at a meeting between the government cabinet and the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control on Saturday morning.

The man has become the 416th Covid-19 patient in Vietnam. All the recent cases are imported, being foreign experts and Vietnamese nationals repatriated from overseas.

The headache is that the source of his infection remains unknown. The patient has reportedly stayed in Danang over the past month and made no contact with strangers. As his health condition has turned grave, he is on support of a ventilator and is being monitored by the best health experts.

Health authorities have traced more than 100 people that made close contact with him and they have so far tested negative for the virus. The most experienced epidemiologists have been sent to Danang to support the contact tracing. Hospitals which he visited in recent days have been put under lockdown.  

Addressing the meeting on Saturday morning, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc orders authorities to act decisively to prevent the virus from spreading to the community.

Danang, one of the most well-known beach cities in Vietnam, has detected dozens of Chinese that illegally entered Vietnam. They have been all quarantined and tested negative for the novel coronavirus.

After news reports on the first community infection in more than three months, the benchmark VN-Index of the Hochiminh Stock Exchange fell 3.22%, the deepest drop in more than one month.