BANGKOK – Vietnam, who had gone 100 days without reporting a case of local transmission of the coronavirus, said on Saturday that a 57-year-old grandfather in the central city of Danang had tested positive. How he contracted the disease remains a mystery.
To avoid a larger outbreak, the Health Ministry said it was conducting “extensive testing and testing in all risk areas in Danang.” Authorities said they had examined and quarantined people who had been in close contact with the patient and were tracking others. So far, no other positive cases have emerged.
Danang’s grandfather’s case is another sign of how difficult it is to contain the virus even when a country has followed best practices. The patient has no recent travel record and appears to be a homebody who spends most of his time caring for his grandchildren.
Health officials, noting that wearing masks in Vietnam had become relaxed, urged members of the public to resume wearing them, especially in crowded places and on public transportation.
Vietnam, one of the few remaining communist states in the world, has been among the most successful in the world to contain the virus. Shortly after the disease emerged in China’s northern Vietnam neighbor, the government quickly closed international borders, called for the widespread use of masks, and established strict quarantine procedures and aggressive contact tracing.
Most foreigners are still prohibited from traveling to Vietnam, and returning citizens must be quarantined, which is where all the other recent cases in Vietnam have been found.
The public has embraced the campaign and has gathered around a famous case, that of the 43-year-old Scottish pilot Stephen Cameron, who was so close to death that doctors in Ho Chi Minh City considered giving him a transplant. double lung. He spent more than two months on life support in a medically induced coma, but he recovered and flew home two weeks ago.
As of Saturday, Vietnam had reported 416 cases and no deaths. His last known case of local transmission was in mid-April. The government has been considering resuming international flights to countries where the virus was contained.
The discovery of the new case in Danang was a shock. Many people reportedly canceled travel plans in central Vietnam, a popular destination for domestic and foreign travelers.
The 57-year-old man, known as Patient 416, first showed signs of cough and fever on July 17 and was admitted to a hospital three days later. Initially, he was diagnosed with pneumonia. An x-ray showed lung lesions and, after suffering respiratory failure, he was put on a respirator.
Her tests for Covid-19 were positive from the start, but it wasn’t until Saturday, when the fourth test result returned, that the government officially declared that it had Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
The country’s acting health minister, Nguyen Thanh Long, confirmed the finding at a meeting of the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 on Saturday.
Health researchers concluded that the patient had not traveled outside of Danang, one of the largest cities in Vietnam, and that he had rarely left his home in the month prior to becoming ill.
The coronavirus outbreak>
Frequent questions
Updated July 23, 2020
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What will school be like in September?
- Many schools are unlikely to return to normal hours this fall, requiring the routine of online learning, impromptu child care, and delayed work days to continue. California’s two largest public school districts, Los Angeles and San Diego, said July 13 that instruction will be remote only in the fall, citing concerns that rising coronavirus infections in their areas pose too serious a risk to students and teachers. Together, the two districts enroll about 825,000 students. They are the largest in the country so far to abandon plans for a partial physical return to classrooms when they reopen in August. For other districts, the solution will not be an all-or-nothing approach. Many systems, including the country’s largest New York City, are devising hybrid plans that involve spending a few days in classrooms and other days online. There is no national policy on this yet, so check with your municipal school system regularly to see what’s going on in your community.
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Is the coronavirus in the air?
- Coronavirus can remain in the air for hours in tiny droplets in stagnant air, infecting people as they inhale, growing scientific evidence suggests. This risk is highest in crowded interior spaces with poor ventilation, and may help explain overcast events reported in meat packing plants, churches, and restaurants. It is unclear how often the virus is transmitted through these tiny droplets or sprays, compared to larger droplets that are expelled when a sick person coughs or sneezes, or is transmitted through contact with contaminated surfaces, Linsey said. Marr, Virginia Tech aerosol expert. Aerosols are released even when a symptom-free person exhales, speaks or sings, according to Dr. Marr and more than 200 other experts, who have summarized the evidence in an open letter to the World Organization. Of the health.
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What are the symptoms of coronavirus?
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What is the best material for a mask?
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Does Covid-19 transmit asymptomatic?
- So far, the evidence seems to show that it does. A widely cited article published in April suggests that people are most infectious approximately two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms, and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were the result of transmission from people who still had no symptoms. Recently, a senior expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people without symptoms was “very rare,” but later withdrew that claim.
On July 7, he took his 92-year-old mother to a medical center for the treatment of her heart disease and, on July 16, visited her at the hospital where she was transferred.
On July 17, he began to feel tired and feverish, but attended an engagement party. The next day, he went to a family wedding.
Health officials said more than 100 people with whom he had been in contact had tested negative for the virus. About 50 of them have been placed in isolation as an additional precaution.
Specialized teams were dispatched from other parts of the country, including from Cho Ray Hospital, where Mr. Cameron was treated, to help with treatment of Patient 416, whose condition appeared to be deteriorating.
“This patient suffers from acute pneumonia with severe symptoms and rapid progression,” according to a statement released Friday by the Ministry of Health, and doctors were seeking “a maximum treatment regimen.”
Chau Doan contributed reporting from Hanoi.
