Four Vietnamese citizens and a US national who recently arrived in Vietnam have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, raising the total number of Covid-19 patients in the country to 1,536, the Ministry of Health reported on Friday evening.

Photo for illustration by Dantri/Dtinews.

According to the ministry's report, two of the newly infected patients include a 23-year-old Vietnamese woman returning from Canada and a 61-year-old US expert.

Both were sent to quarantine right upon their arrival in HCM City and are now being treated at Cu Chi Field Hospital for Covid-19 patients.

The three others are Vietnamese citizens who returned from the US and were quarantined after arriving in central city of Danang.

They are now being treated at the Danang Lung Hospital.

With these new infection cases, the number of imported Covid-19 patients in Vietnam has increased to 842.

As of 6 pm on January 15, a total of 1,389 Covid-19 patients had recovered and been discharged from hospital. There have been 35 deaths, most of them being the elderly with serious underlying diseases.

At present, over 18,000 people who had close contact with Covid-19 patients or returned from virus-hit areas are being monitored at hospitals, quarantine facilities, and at home.