Body temperature screening at an office building in Vietnam over fears of an nCoV outbreak. (Photo: VNA)

According to the Ministry of Health, the latest patient is a 29-year-old female who works at Japan’s Nihon Plast Company in Vinh Phuc province. She is one of eight people who recently returned to Vietnam from China’s Wuhan city, the epicenter of the outbreak, on a Southern China flight last month. The woman has been quarantined at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi and is in stable condition.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has signed a Notice on intensifying prevention and control of the virus in which he asks affected provinces to halt all festivals, even ongoing ones, and close their schools.

On Sunday, a delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam inspected virus prevention in Mong Cai city, Quang Ninh province. Mr. Dam asked local authorities to follow the directions of the Health Ministry on controlling Vietnamese people returning from abroad. He urged Mong Cai city to obtain medical equipment, including quick test tools, to help contain the deadly virus.

“Some people from border areas have told me that although isolation is inconvenient, they support the government’s guidelines to protect public health. All people should cooperate to keep a deadly epidemic from breaking out in Vietnam,” said Mr. Dam.

Deputy PM Dam also inspected a special isolation hospital in Ninh Duong ward and body temperature checks at the Mong Cai international border gate.

On Monday, the disease control center under Quang Ninh province’s Health Department held an exercise to prevent the new coronavirus.

Infections of the coronavirus have passed 17,200 in China, China’s National Health Commission said on Monday. The commission said there were 57 new deaths from the virus, bringing the national toll to 361. The first death outside mainland China was confirmed on Sunday, when a 44-year-old man from Wuhan reportedly died in the Philippines.

An aerial view of the newly completed Huoshenshan Hospital, a dedicated hospital built in 8 days to treat coronavirus patients, in Wuhan, China, on Feb 2, 2020. (Photo: REUTERS)

China’s army on Sunday was given control of a field hospital, called “Fire God Mountain” which was constructed in 10 days to treat patients in Wuhan at the epicenter of the epidemic. It is one of two makeshift medical facilities that authorities ordered to build to relieve hospitals swamped with patients in Wuhan. A second field hospital, “Thunder God Mountain”, will start admitting patients on Thursday.

The new coronavirus has already affected 27 countries and territories.