HCM City (VNA) – The Health Department of Ho Chi Minh City onMarch 17 officially put into operation a 300-bed hospital specialized intreating acute respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)in Can Gio district.

This is the second facility exclusively reserved for the quarantine andtreatment of COVID-19 patients besides the first one in Cu Chi district.

Deputy Director of the Health Department Tang Chi Thuong said the newhospital will reduce the workload on the Hospital for Tropical Diseases whenthe number of COVID-19 cases is increasing in the city.

He added that theestablishment of a specialized hospital will also reduce the risk ofcross-infection.

The same day, the Health Ministry also gave permission to the HCM City ChildrenHospital No1 to perform SARS-CoV-2 tests, bringing the number of facilitiesallowed to do such tests in the city to three.

As of 19:00 of March17, the number of COVID-19 cases in Vietnam was 66, with five new cases confirmed during the day. Of the total,16 have been completely cured.

Meanwhile, on March 11, the Ho Chi Minh City Centre for Disease Control and Prevention announced that it is tracking a passenger from the UK on Flight VN0054 who had close contact with the 17th COVID-19 patient in Vietnam

Groman Manthew James Knight, 32, arrived at Noi Bai International Airport on March 2.

Later, he stayed at An Ha hotel, Son Phong ward, Hoi An city in the central province of Quang Nam, on March 5.

On March 7, he left Hoi An for Ho Chi Minh City.

The man is now in Vietnam but his residence remains unknown.

The centre called on medical centres of districts and wards to track the passenger for quarantine in line with regulation.

The centre is also coordinating with relevant agencies to verify the identities and addresses of five passengers travelling with the Japanese passenger, who was found to have been infected with the coronavirus, on flight VN814 on March 3.

Flight VN814 carried 67 passengers and six cabin crew from Seem Reap, Cambodia, to the city-based Tan Son Nhat International Airport. Sixty-one passengers had connecting flights that night to London (the United Kingdom), Narita and Nagoya (Japan), Busan (the Republic of Korea) and Manila (the Philippines). Six passengers checked into Vietnam including one Vietnamese, three French, one Australian and one Filipino. The Filipino then flew home on March 4.

The Japanese passenger boarded a connecting flight, VN340, to Nagoya, Japan, on early March 4 and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 after arriving in Japan with a fever.

All the crew from flight 340 returned to Vietnam on flight VN341, which landed at Tan Son Nhat airport on March 4 afternoon. Accordingly, passengers entering Vietnam and all crew have been put into quarantine.

The aircraft used for flight VN341 was also disinfected.

After getting information on the case, the national steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and control sent a dispatch to the Ministry of Public Security and the HOCM City People’s Committee on locating their whereabouts of those who had contact and boarded the same flight with the Japanese passenger.

Meanwhile, fifty-seven people related to the flights a Japanese passenger with SARS-CoV-2 boarding have been put under quarantine, the disease control centre of Ho Chi Minh City said on March 5.

This Japanese passenger flew from Siem Reap (Cambodia) on flight VN814 and arrived at Tan Son Nhat International Airport of HCM City at 10:30pm on March 3. Right on that night, the passenger boarded flight VN340 to go to Japan and was tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19 there.

The crew and plane of flight VN340 returned to Vietnam on March 4 with their flight coded VN341./.