A 50-year-old man living in Hanoi's Ba Dinh District had traveled to Paris for a business trip and returned to Vietnam on March 9. Two days later, he showed symptoms of fever and cough.

On Friday, he was taken to the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Dong Anh District and a test result showed he was infected with the novel coronavirus. He became the country's 50th Covid-19 patient. His condition is stable, doctors said.

The 51st patient is a 22-year-old woman residing in Hanoi's Bac Tu Liem District. She was an overseas student in Europe and had traveled to some countries in the region between February 23 and March 12.

On Thursday she developed symptoms of high fever and cough but had no chest pain. She landed at the Noi Bai International Airport on flight QR968 Friday and was directly taken to the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases. Tests done showed she is infected with the virus. 

A 24-year-old woman in Ha Long Town in the northern province of Quang Ninh is the country's 52nd Covid-19 patient. She had boarded a flight from London to Hanoi on March 9, and taken a taxi to her house in Ha Long Town. She isolated herself at home before being taken to the local quarantine area. 

Tests done Friday and Saturday in Quang Ninh and the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi, respectively, confirmed she was infected with the virus. 

The 53rd Covid-19 patient in Vietnam is a 53-year-old Czech citizen who had come into contact some Italian nationals in his home country. On March 10, he landed at Saigon’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport on a QR970 flight that transited at Doha Airport in Qatar. 

He stayed at a local hotel in Saigon's District 1. On Friday, he developed symptoms of cough and fatigue. He went to Ho Chi Minh City's Traditional Medicine Hospital for a health check and results showed signs of lung inflammation. He tested Covid-19 positive after being quarantined at the city's Hospital for Tropical Diseases. 

Earlier Saturday, a 31-year-old man Saigon resident who’d shared a car with an infected person and met with another infected person, and a 71-year-old British man on the VN54 flight that landed in Hanoi on March 2 had been confirmed as the nation’s 48th and 49th Covid-19 patients. 

The Covid-19 outbreak has thus far spread to 145 countries and territories around the world, with the death toll climbing to over 5,400.a