Introduction:
SARS-CoV-2 is the cause of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), first
reported in Wuhan, China in late December 2019. As of September 2020,
SARS-CoV-2 was responsible for over 25 million cases and nearly one
million deaths(1)
Vietnam is a country of 97 million people which, despite its
lower-middle income status, managed to limit spread of SARS-CoV-2,
requiring eight months to reach 1,000 cases and seven months to record
its first fatality. The early days of the pandemic in Vietnam were
marked primarily by importations from China whereas the second cluster
of cases was characterized by importation from Europe (2–6).
Vietnam hosts two National Influenza Centers (NICs) including one at the
National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE). NIHE coordinates
influenza surveillance in northern Vietnam and has played a critical
role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. In its role as a reference
laboratory throughout the country, NIHE received some of the earliest
specimens from suspected cases of COVID-19. Our objectives were to
describe the virologic characteristics of these specimens received
during January through April 2020 and to explore differences in these
characteristics among cases derived from different sources.