The Hanoi Department of Health on February 18 recorded 584 direct contacts of a deceased Japanese Covid-19 patient negative for the novel coronavirus.

Somerset West Point hotel in Hanoi is sealed off after the Japanese patient tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Photo: VGP

Only two people have tested positive for the virus after coming into close contact with the Japanese man who was recently confirmed as a Covid-19 patient following his death at Somerset West Point hotel in Hanoi.

They are a 24-year-old Hanoi woman and 43-year-old Japanese who work at Mitsui Vietnam Company.

They had direct contact with the Japanese patient (Patient No.2,229), a 54-year-old expert of Mitsui Vietnam, during a meeting on the ninth floor of Red Sun River Building in Hoan Kiem district on February 2.

Patient No.2,229 arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on January 17 and stayed at a quarantine center until January 31. He tested negative for the novel coronavirus twice during his quarantine period.

The foreigner flew to Hanoi on February 1 and was found dead at his hotel room on February 13.

The foreign man was confirmed posthumously to be positive for the novel coronavirus in his third Covid-19 test.

The Hanoi Department of Health on February 14 confirmed the death of a Japanese man in Somerset West Point hotel in Tay Ho district and has quickly tracked people who had come into contact with him.

The municipal authorities immediately have put 139 hotel employees and guests at the hotel under quarantine and sterilized the area surrounding the building.

Hanoi police have made an urgent announcement highlighting seven locations where the patient had gone to prior to his diagnosis.

His direct and indirect contacts have been tracked, quarantined, and tested for Covid-19.