Update at 4:00PM on March 8, 2020 about the cases related to the 17^th Covid-19 victim in Ho Chi Minh City.

By 4:00 PM March 8, 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 test result of the quarantine cases, who flew together with the 17th Covid-19 victim were announced. Accordingly, all 20 cases had negative test results with Covid-19, including:

+ 4/4 cases of Vietnamese citizens living in HCMC

+ 1 case of Australian Vietnamese

+ 15 foreign tourists

In addition, as reported, there were 5 other foreign tourists on the same flight VN0054, departed from Noi Bai and flew to Ho Chi Minh City via the flight VN223, landed at Tan Son Nhat airport at 9:54AM on March 2, 2020. This group of tourists then took the Viking Cruise to travel to Cambodia from March 4, 2020. Among these 5 tourirsts, there was 1 whose seat was 3K on the flight VN0054 and this person shared the same cabin with the 17^th Covid-19 victim. This is the highly affected case due to sitting in the same cabin and the same seat row with the 17^th Covid-19 victim. According to the information received by the Ho Chi Minh City Disease Control Center (HCDC), this tourist is now quarantined on the Viking Cruise and not allowed to travel around Cambodia. However, this person has normal health condition thus the medical authorities in Cambodia still did not take blood sample for testing. The Vietnamese government already contact the Cambodia government to take this person’s blood sample for testing immediately and is still waiting for their respond.

According to the research of HCDC, this person flew to HO Chi Minh City via the flight VN223, landed at Tan Son Nhat airport at 9:54 AM on March 2, 2020 and was sitting on the seat 2G belonging to the business class cabin. Following his agenda, after visiting Cambodia, this person will fly from ShiemRiep to Noi Bai to visit Ha Noi and then come back to Europe on March 16, 2020. While observing this person’s health (highly affected case) and waiting for the test result from Cambodia (if any). HCDC recommend that passengers who shared the same cabin with this person on the flight VN223 must contact their local medical authorities, make a health declaration to receive guide on how to protect themselves, their families and also the community. The remaining of passengers sharing the same flight should self-monitor the health at home according to the instructions of the Health Sector. The remaining passengers should self-monitor the health at home according to the instructions of the Health Sector.

(For detailed instructions on self-monitoring at home, refer to the website -t4ghcm.org.vn or HCDC fanpage).
HCDC will continue to implement solutions, follow-up and provide additional information in subsequent newsletters.

Ho Chi Minh City Disease Control Center (HCDC)