Ho Chi Minh City man tests positive for COVID-19, traced back to border jumper

The man was quarantined on Sunday

Ho Chi Minh City man tests positive for COVID-19, traced back to border jumper
Barbed wire barriers are placed at an apartment building in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City, where a COVID-19 patient lives, December 28, 2020. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre

A man tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday after he had contact with a Vietnamese border jumper who had been confirmed to contract the virus last week, according to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health.

The 23-year-old man in question has been transferred to a makeshift hospital for COVID-19 treatment in the city, the health department said in a report on Monday.

He is in stable health but suffers nasal congestion and chesty coughing.

His place of residence, an apartment building on Su Van Hanh Street in District 5, is now isolated by local authorities.

Police officers guard at an apartment building in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City, where a COVID-19 patient lives, December 28, 2020.Photo: Minh Hoa / Tuoi Tre

Police officers guard an apartment building in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City, where a COVID-19 patient lives, December 28, 2020. Photo: Minh Hoa / Tuoi Tre

His sample was taken for coronavirus testing on Sunday, when he was sent to collective quarantine in District 5.

The result returned positive at the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control at 5:00 pm the same day.

He traveled with patient 1,440 from Myanmar to Thailand and Cambodia before illegally crossing the border into Vietnam on December 24, according to an epidemiological investigation.

Patient 1,440 claimed that he had entered Vietnam via the Long Binh border gate in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang.

At 5:00 am on December 24, the man traveled to Ho Chi Minh City on a truck, but forgot the driver’s name.

Isolation is applied to an apartment building in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City, where a COVID-19 patient lives, December 28, 2020.Photo: Ngoc Phuong / Tuoi Tre

Isolation is applied to an apartment building in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City, where a COVID-19 patient lives, December 28, 2020. Photo: Ngoc Phuong / Tuoi Tre

At 7:00 am, he got on a 16-seater coach from Ho Chi Minh City to Vinh Long Province in the delta and spent a few minutes at a rest stop in Tien Giang Province.

The patient could not remember the name of the passenger bus line.

Four passengers were on board the coach but sat in different rows.

After reaching Vinh Long, he took a motorbike taxi to his home in Mang Thit District, before his family reported him to local authorities.

He tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Saturday and was brought to Vinh Long Lung Hospital for treatment.

Vietnam has confirmed 1,441 COVID-19 patients as of Monday morning, with 1,303 recoveries and 35 virus-related fatalities, according to the Ministry of Health.

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