HCM City (VNA) – The Ho Chi Minh City Centre forDisease Control and Prevention announced on March 11 that it is tracking apassenger 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 InternationalAirport on March 2.

Later, he stayed at An Ha hotel, Son Phong ward, Hoi An cityin 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 wardsto track the passenger for quarantine in line with regulation.

The centre is 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.

After receiving this information on March 4 afternoon, the city’s disease prevention and control system immediately took response measures while flight VN341 was preparing to land.

As this flight hadn’t been disinfected before returning to Vietnam, the 13 crew members and 22 passengers entering the country (all are Vietnamese, including adults and children) were sent to the city’s concentrated quarantine wards in Nha Be and Cu Chi districts on late March 4. The aircraft was sterilised in line with regulations.

Regarding flight VN814, relevant agencies also quarantined six crew members right on late March 4. Among the six passengers who boarded this flight and entered Vietnam, five are foreigners (one Filipino, three French and one Australian), and they exited the country on March 4.

The other is a Vietnamese residing in District 1 of HCM City, and this person was also sent to a concentrated quarantine centre on March 5 morning. Meanwhile, relatives having contact with this passenger were asked to quarantine themselves at home.

Nine staff members of Tan Son Nhat airport who met the infected Japanese passenger on March 3 night have also been quarantined since March 4 night.

Additionally, before leaving Vietnam for Bangkok (Thailand), the three French on flight VN814 stayed at a hotel in District 1. Six hotel employees having contact with them are kept in quarantine at present. The hotel has also been disinfected.

In the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, a Vietnamese returning from the Republic of Korea, where the number of COVID-19 cases is surging, died on March 5 morning, but he was tested negative for SARS-CoV-2.

The 65-year-old man became unconscious and was hospitalised on March 4 afternoon. He suffered from septic shock caused by pneumonia, acute kidney failure and diabetes.

As of March 11, Vietnam recorded a total of 38 infection cases./.