Vietnam’s Ministry of Health confirmed on Thursday that two family members of an nCoV-infected worker returning from Wuhan have tested positive for the virus, raising the country’s total infections to 12.
One patient is the 49-year-old mother while the other is the 16-year-old sister of the infected female worker, who is 23, in the northern province of Vinh Phuc. The mother started coughing on February 3, while the sister had coughing and fatigue. VNExpress, a local media reports on Thursday.
Related: Nha Trang hotel staff infected with coronavirus discharged from hospital
The two had their biological samples taken to the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology for testing on February 4. They are being treated in quarantine at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi and in stable conditions.
The worker is one of eight employees of Japan-based Nihon Plast Company Limited who were sent to Wuhan for work training in November. They returned to Vietnam on a Southern China Airlines flight (CZ8315) on January 17. They were picked up by the company car at Hanoi’s Noi Bai Airport and attended a company meeting in Thien Ke Commune, Binh Son District, Vinh Phuc Province, about 18 km from the airport.
Five of them were infected with the new coronavirus and put under treatment. One has been declared healthy and discharged from hospital on Monday. A cousin of one of the workers has also been infected.
Other infection cases in Vietnam are a Vietnamese-American visitor who transited in Wuhan, a Chinese man from Wuhan and his son who met him in Vietnam, and a hotel receptionist who served the father and son in Nha Trang.
The Nha Trang hotel staff and the Chinese son have also been discharged from hospital.
Vietnam’s government declared the novel coronavirus outbreak an epidemic last Saturday.
The global death toll from the epidemic has reached 565, with 563 dying in China, one in the Philippines and one in Hong Kong.
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