New coronavirus variant found in Vietnam Patient 1,435, a Vietnamese woman repatriated from the UK, has been confirmed as the first COVID-19 case with VOC 202012/01, a recently found and highly contagious variant of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, in Vietnam. The Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute made the confirmation on January 2. The patient, born in 1976, was brought home from the UK on Flight VN50, which landed at Can Tho International Airport in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on December 22, and was quarantined upon arrival. She is among the six, out of the 305 passengers on board, tested positive for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.