A medical staff tests human samples for the novel coronavirus in Hanoi.
Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh. 

Two Vietnamese returning from Russia and Japan were confirmed infected with the novel coronavirus Saturday evening, taking the national active case count to 124. 

"Patient 1340" is a 23-year-old man from the central province of Thanh Hoa. On November 13, he returned from Japan and landed at Cam Ranh Airport in Khanh Hoa Province on Vietjet Air flight VJ8650.

He was sent to a centralized quarantine facility in Khanh Hoa on entry and his second test result on Friday showed he was positive for the virus. The patient is being treated at Khanh Hoa Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

"Patient 1341" is a 20-year-old woman from Hanoi. She landed at Cam Ranh Airport on Bamboo Airways flight QH9195 from Russia on November 24 and was quarantined upon arrival.

Her first test result on Friday came back positive and she is receiving treatment at the same hospital as "Patient 1340".

Earlier, four people boarding the same Bamboo Airways flight and being quarantined in Khanh Hoa upon arrival were confirmed positive for the coronavirus.

Vietnam now has 1,341 Covid-19 cases. Saturday also saw nine patients declared free of Covid-19, raising total recoveries to 1,179.

The country of 96 million people has recorded 35 deaths so far. Three others died after they had been confirmed Covid-19 free, and thus were not counted in either the recoveries or the deaths.

Vietnam has gone 86 days without community transmissions while the pandemic situation in many European countries and the U.S. have turned complicated.

The Covid-19 pandemic has hit 218 countries and territories, with more than 1.4 million deaths reported.