A medical staff performs Covid-19 test on swab samples taken from
suspected people at Da Nang Center for Disease Control, March 2020.
Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong. 

"Patient 22," a British man who tested positive after being discharged from Da Nang, has tested Covid-19 negative in the U.K. 

The information was confirmed Friday night by Ton That Thanh, director of the Da Nang Center for Disease Control, after he received the information from the British Consulate in HCMC about the 66-year-old British man.

On April 14, after the man returned to the U.K., he was taken to the Royal Surrey County Hospital and had his throat swab samples taken for Covid-19 testing. A day later, the result showed he was negative.

"We feel happy and relieved with this information," Thanh said.

The British man had flown into Hanoi March 2 from London. He was announced infected with the novel coronavirus on March 8 and was treated at Da Nang Hospital until he was discharged on March 27 after testing negative three times. He was later quarantined at a hotel in Son Tra District for 14 days.

On April 10, he flew from Da Nang to HCMC and stayed at a hotel on Hong Ha Street in Tan Binh District while waiting to fly back to the U.K. His samples were taken at the HCMC's Tan Son Nhat Airport and tested twice later, and the results came out positive both times, but he’d already departed for home by then.

In HCMC, 51 people including hotel receptionists, hotel guests, and those having contact with the British national have been quarantined for medical supervision.

Authorities in Da Nang also quarantined 58 people who had close contact with the Brit, but all their samples tested negative for the novel coronavirus.

Regarding the British man testing positive for Covid-19 after being discharged, some health officials are assuming the phenomenon could result from the difference in viral load at different times or the difference in procedures and test devices.  

However, leading experts and doctors are of the view that Covid-19 is a new disease about which many things have to be studied further.

It is no longer rare for Covid-19 patients to test positive after a full recovery, with many such cases recorded worldwide.

Vietnam has not confirmed any new Covid-19 infection since Thursday morning, keeping its total count at 268. Of these, 201 have been discharged and 67 are active.

The Covid-19 pandemic has reached 210 countries and territories, with reported deaths surpassing 154,300.