"Patients 965 to 968" and "Patients 974 - 975", aged between 33 and 59, include three family members of a Covid-19 patient, a medical staff and a security guard at the Da Nang Hospital, and a resident of Thanh Khe District in the central city.

"Patient 969" is a 25-year-old resident of Truong Dinh Ward in Hanoi's Hai Ba Trung District. She’d had close contact with a person who later became "Patient 962". She is being treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases 2 in the capital city.

"Patients 970 to 973," aged 13-41, are from Hai Duong Town in the eponymous province near Hanoi. The four cases are linked to a restaurant called The gioi bo tuoi (Fresh beef world) on Ngo Quyen Street, which has been identified as a hotspot. Five cases have previously been confirmed linked to this restaurant. The new patients are being treated at the Hai Duong Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

"Patient 976" is a 42-year-old man who landed July 29 at Hanoi’s Noi Bai Airport on Vietnam Airlines repatriation flight VN6 from Equatorial Guinea. Quarantined on arrival, the third test of his samples came out positive for the novel coronavirus.

The man is being treated at the Dong Anh Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases. He is the 23rd Vietnamese citizen infected with the virus after returning from Equatorial Guinea.

Monday’s new cases have taken Vietnam’s Covid-19 tally to 976, including 487 active cases. There have been 24 deaths to date.

On Monday, 11 more Covid-19 patients linked to the Da Nang outbreak were confirmed free of the virus.

Since July 25, when local transmission returned after over three months, 499 cases have been reported in 15 cities and provinces, including 11 in Ho Chi Minh City and 10 in Hanoi. Most have been linked to the country's epicenter Da Nang, where 350 people have contracted the virus.

HCMC has not recorded any new cases of community transmission or any Covid-19 death in the last 15 days, city Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong said Monday. Citing the figures at a government meeting on Covid-19 prevention, Phong said that the city has initially put its outbreak under control.

More than 107,000 people who have returned from abroad or come into close contact with infected people are in quarantine nationwide.