Why did a woman from Binh Duong returning to Nghe An more than a month later discover she was infected with Covid-19?

On the morning of September 1, the Nghe An Center for Disease Control announced the discovery of 20 more patients infected with Covid-19. Notably, there was a patient from the South who returned to his hometown more than a month ago before testing positive.

Specifically, the patient is Ms. XY K. (59 years old, in Nam Can commune, Ky Son district). This patient returned to her hometown in Nghe An from Binh Duong on July 30. Immediately after returning to her hometown, she was taken to a centralized quarantine facility and had her samples taken 6 times, all of which were negative. On August 31, the patient was tested for the 7th time, with the result confirming her positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

A school was requisitioned as a centralized quarantine area in Nam Can commune (Ky Son). Photo: Thanh Cuong

Regarding this case, Ms. Vi Thi Quyen - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ky Son district said that immediately after returning to the locality, Ms. K. was quarantined in the same room with many other people. After that, 4 people in the same room with Ms. K. tested positive for Covid-19.

"Every time a person in the room is found to be infected, the remaining people must be quarantined again from the beginning. That's why Ms. K. has been quarantined for more than a month, and tested for Covid-19 seven times before being found to be infected," Ms. Quyen said, adding that since mid-July, more than 1,500 children from Ky Son district who are living and working in the southern provinces have returned to their hometowns to avoid the epidemic.

After returning to their hometowns, these people were all taken to centralized quarantine, mostly at schools. "However, the district does not have enough space to arrange quarantine rooms for each person, and only one boarding school has a closed sanitation system. Therefore, it is inevitable that people in the same quarantine room will be infected," said the Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ky Son district, adding that so far, this mountainous district has recorded 62 cases of Covid-19. The district is implementing social distancing according to Directive 15.

The centralized quarantine area in My Ly commune was also requisitioned from a school. Photo: Tien Hung

A day before, Nam Dan district also recorded 2 very complicated community cases. One of them was a militia member of Xuan Hoa commune, assigned to work at the centralized quarantine area; the other was an employee of the commune health station.

On the morning of September 1, Mr. Ho Son - Director of Nam Dan District Medical Center said that all F1 of the 2 patients have been taken to centralized quarantine. In particular, in Xuan Hoa commune alone, 8 leaders and officials are F1, must go to centralized quarantine according to regulations.

Mr. Ho Xuan Hung - Chairman of Xuan Hoa Commune People's Committee said that these two patients were infected from the centralized quarantine area. In particular, the male patient is a militiaman, working as a security guard in the quarantine area, and had entered the room to fix electricity and water, so he had contact with people in quarantine. The female nurse also went to the quarantine area to provide emergency care to a patient in the quarantine area who had respiratory failure.

Officers on duty at a concentrated quarantine area in the commune. Photo: Tien Hung

Meanwhile, in Dien Chau district, on August 31 alone, 16 people were discovered infected with Covid-19 while being quarantined in Dien Nguyen and Dien Yen communes.

Discussing this issue, Mr. Tang Van Luyen - Chairman of the People's Committee of Dien Chau district affirmed that this was not due to cross-infection in the quarantine area. "All of these people, before being quarantined, were assessed to have a very high risk of contracting Covid-19. They are all close family members or have close relationships with each other, and have had close contact with each other before, so when they entered the quarantine area, we arranged them to stay in the same room. There is no way of infection from one room to another," said Mr. Luyen.

It is known that currently, the whole Nghe An province is quarantined 8,133 people, of which 2,752 are F1. The rest are from epidemic areas across the country returning to their hometowns.