Vietnam on April 27 confirmed a Covid-19 case who was infected from Indian experts coming to the country for work.

Immigration check-in process at Noi Bai International Airport, Hanoi. Photo: Thanh Binh/Bao Giao Thong

The infection was reported after the country undergone more than one month without local transmission.

The newest patient made contact with some Indian experts on April 18 at a hotel in the northern province of Yen Bai. Four infected Indian experts and the Vietnamese patient have been brought together to the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases No.2 in Hanoi for treatment.

Yen Bai’s authorities had disinfected the hotel and quarantined facilities, saying that risk of community transmission is low as the confirmed cases had been quarantined.

Prof. Dang Duc Anh, head of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE), said local scientists are sequencing genome on patients from India. The process will take several days and its results could be informed this week.

Genomic sequencing allows scientists to identify SARS-CoV-2 and monitor how it changes over time into new variants, understand how these changes affect the characteristics of the virus, and use this information to better understand how it might impact health, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

As of April 28, Vietnam reported 2,857 infections, including half are imported. So far, 2,516 patients recovered.

Given high risk of pandemic resurgence, mostly on the occasion of the upcoming four-day holiday starting from April 30, the Ministry of Health calls for engagement of each and every citizen in the fight against Covid-19.

It requires no crowd gathering; keeping vigilance in the pandemic; reporting allegedly illegal immigrants; closely following 5K-measure rule (masking, disinfection, distance, no gathering, and medical declaration); referring to hotline 1900.9095 when needed. The ministry is determined to maintain the country’s Covid-19 containment results, it said.