"Patient 231," 57, is an employee of the Truong Sinh Company, the food and logistics provider to Hanoi’s Bach Mai Hospital, now the nation’s biggest Covid-19 hotspot. She is a native of Bac Kan, living in the northern province’s Kim Ngu Commune, Na Ri District.

On March 31, she joined a team at the Bach Mai Hospital for a business trip to the nearby Ha Nam Province. After learning about the infection cases at Bach Mai, the Ha Nam health sector isolated members of this team. After she tested Covid-19 positive, she was admitted to Ha Nam General Hospital for treatment.

She takes the number of patients linked to the Bach Mai Hospital to 43, 27 of whom are employees of the Truong Sinh Company.

The other five patients are people quarantined on arrival from abroad. Patients 228, 229 and 230 returned to Vietnam on March 20 and were quarantined in the northern province of Ninh Binh. Further details of their flights home have not been revealed.

"Patient 228" is a 29-year-old man from the northern province of Bac Giang now undergoing treatment at a medical center in Ninh Binh Province’s Ninh Thang Commune, Hoa Lu District.

"Patient 229" and "Patient 230," women aged 30 and 28 respectively, are from the central province of Ha Tinh who have been admitted to the Ninh Binh General Hospital for treatment.

Patients "232" and "233" flew back to Vietnam March 27 on Aeroflot flight SU290 from Moscow and were quarantined in the northern province of Vinh Phuc. They are being treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi’s Dong Anh District. "Patient 232" is a 67-year-old man from the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau and "Patient 233" is a 24-year-old woman from Nghe An Province in central Vietnam.

Of the 233 cases of new coronavirus infection confirmed in Vietnam until now, 75 have been discharged from hospitals.

Vietnam declared Covid-19 a national epidemic Wednesday afternoon.

To date, the Covid-19 pandemic has claimed almost 53,000 lives in 204 countries and territories.