Nha Trang hotel staff infected with nCoV discharged from hospital

Le Thi Thu Ha, 25, was discharged from the Hospital of Tropical Diseases in the central province of Khanh Hoa, home to Nha Trang beach town, on Tuesday afternoon after three latest tests found her free of the nCoV.

Her health is stable, she had no fever for around one week and all blood tests came back normal, said Nguyen Vu Quoc Binh, deputy director of the hospital.

Ha said that she felt happy to be back home, but is under more pressure when facing people around her and fear of being alienated.

"I have to try to overcome it," Ha said while collecting her luggage to leave the hospital.

"During the period of quarantine, I had only a smartphone to contact with my family. All doctors encouraged me a lot," she said.

Last Friday, Khanh Hoa authorities confirmed her as the sixth case of new coronavirus infection.

The patient worked at a hotel on Ton Dan Street in Nha Trang. Li Ding, 66, and his son Li Zichao, 28, confirmed as Vietnam's first cases of nCoV infection last week, checked into the hotel on January 16. They were assisted by the receptionist. The father came from Wuhan, the epidemic center, while his son joined him from the southern Long An Province.

Two days later, she developed a fever and cough, but took some medicine on her own.

On January 24, after the two Chinese nationals tested positive for the deadly new coronavirus, Khanh Hoa authorities isolated the receptionist and sent her blood samples to institutes in Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh City. The results showed that she had contracted the virus too.

30 people who have been in contact with the female patient over the past time, are being placed under surveillance. The hospital have now isolated 18 people with symptoms of fever and cough.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Vietnam confirmed 10 infection cases, including a Vietnamese-American who transited in Wuhan en route, five workers returning from Wuhan, the core of the epidemic, and the Chinese father-son duo.

One of the workers from Wuhan and the Chinese son have been discharged from hospital.

Vietnam's government declared the novel coronavirus an epidemic on Saturday. The country has reported 304 suspected cases with symptoms like high fever and coughing, including some people who had visited infected areas in China, as of Monday. Of them, 214 have tested negative for the virus and 90 are in quarantine pending test results.

The death toll from the epidemic has reached 427, with 425 dying in China, one in the Philippines and one in Hong Kong.