First three Vietnamese nationals tested positive for the mysterious coronavirus

Two out of the three newly confirmed are residing in Hanoi while the other hails from the north-central province of Thanh Hoa.

All of the patients had recently returned to Vietnam on the same flight after attending a vocational training program in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the first nCoV infection was reported in December 2019.

Before the first three infected cases of Vietnamese nationals, two Chinese citizen had been tested positive for the deadly virus in Vietnam last week. One of the Chinese patients having been cured.

But both of them, who are father and son, are still under treatment at Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.

Of the three coronavirus patients, the Thanh Hoa local is quarantined for treatment at a provincial hospital, while the two Vietnamese citizen in Hanoi are being treated at the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases 2 located in the Vietnamese capital.

On the same day, Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc also signed a decision to establish a steering committee for prevention of acute respiratory infection caused by the new strain of the coronavirus.

Vietnam is among more than a dozen countries and territories with confirmed infected cases, as the pneumonia outbreak has killed 170 people in China and infected 7,819 around the world.