Truong Sinh Company, which provides catering services for several hospitals in Hanoi, has been asked to stop operations for the time being after authorities identified its employees were the source of transmission of the coronavirus, VnExpress reported.

The company's employees will be taken samples for SARS-Cov-2 testing after cases of infection in Hanoi linked to the company and Bach Mai Hospital are increasing.

The canteen of Huu Nghi Hospital has been cordoned off. Photo: Huong Thuy

As of April 3 morning, 40 Covid-19 patients linked to Bach Mai Hospital have been recorded, 26 of them are Truong Sinh Company’s employees.

According to the Ministry of Health, the company supplies food to five hospitals, including Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi and its branch in Ha Nam province, National Endocrinology Hospital No.2, Huu Nghi Hospital and a hospital in Thai Nguyen province.

The ministry also told these hospitals to cut Truong Sinh Company’s services and check the health of all of the firm’s staff and the hospitals’ workers, aside from disinfecting the hospitals and finding new food caterers during the suspension of Truong Sinh Company.

Bach Mai Hospital has tested 91 employees of Truong Sinh Company and hundreds of people who came into close contact with them, and 26 of the firm’s employees have been found positive with Covid-19. The hospital has been locked down since March 28.

Huu Nghi Hospital and a hospital in Thai Nguyen province have also tested the firm’s employees who work at these healthcare facilities and their test results were negative for the contagious virus.

So far, Vietnam has recorded 233 Covid-19 patients, of which 75 have been cured and discharged from hospital. Hanoi reported 105 active coronavirus-infected cases, the largest number in the country.