Three men (3rd, 4th and 5th from left) pose with doctors at Can Gio District Hospital
in HCMC's Can Gio District as they are discharged after Covid-19 treatment,
April 3, 2020. Photo courtesy of the hospital. 

Three patients were released from the Covid-19 Treatment Hospital in HCMC's Can Gio District Friday, raising the national discharge total to 78. 

Patients 99, 100 and 121, all Vietnamese residents of HCMC, had tested positive for the novel coronavirus after returning from abroad.

"Patient 99" is a 29-year-old man residing in Binh Thanh District. He flew back from Paris on Air France flight AF258, seat 33H, on March 18 and was transferred to a quarantine zone in District 12. His sample tested positive for Covid-19 on March 21.

"Patient 100" is a 55 year-old man living in District 8 with a history of diabetes and arthritis. He returned to Vietnam from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on AirAsia flight AK524 on March 3 and had quarantined himself at home. From March 4 to 17, he went to pray five times a day at the Jamiul Anwar Mosque in District 8.

On March 18, he was still asymptomatic, but his samples were taken by the District 8 medical center because he was among those who had participated in a Muslim ceremony in Malaysia that later had recorded hundreds of infections. His samples tested positive.

"Patient 121" is a 58-year-old man in Tan Binh District. On March 18, he and his wife flew from New York to Vietnam on ANA Airlines flight NH831 that transited at Japan’s Narita airport. The couple landed March 19 at the Tan Son Nhat airport and he was confirmed positive the next day.

All three discharged patients will be medically monitored at home for the next 14 days.

HCMC has so far recorded 18 patients who have recovered from their Covid-19 infections and been discharged from hospitals.

This is the second batch of discharges at the Covid-19 Treatment Hospital in Can Gio District. In the first, a 54-year-old Latvian man, "Patient 54," was released on March 31.

With 300 beds, the Can Gio hospital lies 50 km from downtown HCMC and has been used from March 16 to admit Covid-19 patients for treatment and quarantine those suspected to have the disease.

With the 78 people discharged so far, Vietnam now has 155 Covid-19 active patients.