Vietnam’s Ministry of Health on Friday evening confirmed another infection of the new coronavirus (nCoV) in the northern province of Vinh Phuc, the 13th case in the country so far.

Inside a quarantine area in Vietnam. Photo: SKDS

The new infected, a 29-year-old female, is one of the eight Vietnamese citizens who were sent by Japan’s Nihon Plast Company to the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus outbreak, for training three months ago and returned to Vietnam on a January 17 Southern China flight.

Five of the eight people had tested positive with the nCoV and one of them has recovered and been discharged of hospital, according to the ministry.

The latest patient had not shown any symptoms of infection before being confirmed positive with the disease. The National Institute for Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) on February 3 took a test on her. She is now in quarantine in a hospital in Vinh Phuc province and is in good health condition, without fever or cough.

Vinh Phuc has become an epicenter of the epidemic in Vietnam, with eight individuals infected so far. Two of the patients were infected from one of the eight Nihon Plast Company employees. The two other employees are now in isolation while those who have made contact with the infected are under strict medical watch.

Besides Vinh Phuc, Ho Chi Minh City has detected three infections, Khanh Hoa and Thanh Hoa provinces one each. Three have been released of hospital and no death has been reported so far.

Quarantine is one of the countermeasures Vietnam is taking to curb the spread of the coronavirus, with three rounds.

The NIHE on February 7 announced that it had successfully isolated and grown new coronaviruses in the laboratory. The cultivation of the nCoV paves the way for future research and development of a vaccine against the virus and to enable rapid testing of nCoV infections and suspected cases.