Ho Chi Minh City’s Health Department said it has traced and identified five people who were aboard the same flight with a Vietnamese-American girl infected with the A/H1N1 virus, who is currently isolated and under close observation in the Republic of Korea.

Out of the five people, who entered Vietnam at Tan Son Nhat airport in HCM City on May 17, three are from Ho Chi Minh City and the two others are from Phu Yen and Vinh Long provinces.

A RoK man among the three people in Ho Chi Minh City went to the Tropical Hospital where he tested negative to the influenza virus. However, he will be monitored for at least another seven days, said doctor Phan Van Nghiem of the municipal health department.

Doctor Nghiem also said that the HCM City health department instructed Vung Tau and Da Nang health departments to isolate the two other passengers as they travelled to Vung Tau and Da Nang cities after their arrival in the country.

Health officials have monitored the two passengers who arrived in Phu Yen and Vinh Long province but could so far find no clinical symptoms of influenza A/H1N1.

On May 20, two passengers at Tan Son Nhat airport were found to have temperatures above 38 degrees Celsius and were sent to the Tropical Hospital for isolation and more tests.

The number of confirmed cases of influenza A (H1N1) has risen to 10,243 and the death toll has edged up to 80, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO)./.