Half the number of patients, 126, have been discharged from hospitals.

Of the active ones, 25 have tested negative once and 17 twice, the latter qualified to be discharged soon under Health Ministry regulations.

Until now, Vietnam has not recorded a single Covid-19 death.

The Health Ministry said Wednesday the pandemic has entered the third stage in Vietnam with the reporting of community transmissions.

The first stage, which began late January, saw the nation record 16 cases by mid-February, with many cases linked to Wuhan in China, where the novel coronavirus broke out. Then the country went 22 days in a row without any new cases before the second stage began March 6, with a wave of infected people returning from abroad, particularly Europe.

The third stage, as defined by the Health Ministry, is the community transmission stage when more than a few locals have got infected and the source of transmission is yet to be identified.

To deal with this, more drastic social distancing will be needed to curb infection, track down the source and locate the stricken areas for isolation, Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Truong Son said.

"The central government, related agencies and local authorities have taken strong measures to prevent the spread of infection. If everyone strictly follows the ‘social distancing’ rules, we can totally slow down the epidemic and even bring it under control," he said.

Vietnam is still in a 15-day social distancing campaign launched April 1. During this period, people have been told not to venture outside their homes except for essential reasons like buying food and medicine or other emergencies.

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected 209 countries and territories, and claimed more than 88,300 lives.