These patients are quarantined at home for two weeks but if the quick test in the second week confirms them negative, they could be set free, said Nguyen Thi Huynh Mai, office chief of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health.

During self-treatment, patients are monitored by ward-level medical task forces that provide them drugs, medical equipment and guidance.

In case any patients show severe signs, those task forces are in charge of providing emergency aid if needed and transferring them to hospital.

"It is absolutely true that the number of patients isolated at home has been falling since early September and along with the decrease of new patients, critical patients and fatalities. At the same time, more and more patients have been discharged from Covid-19 hospitals," said Mai.

By Friday, the city had had 129,179 Covid-19 patients confirmed to have finished self-isolation, she said.

She said having patients treated at home is a "major and right policy" of the city and that the model has been highly praised by the Health Ministry.

However, only when the households of patients are qualified enough to prevent cross-infections among members are they allowed to stay at home for treatment.

Epicenter of Vietnam’s fourth Covid-19 wave that appeared in late April, HCMC has recorded 366,539 cases and 14,115 deaths.