Vietnam declares outbreak of coronavirus in coastal tourist hub
Khanh Hoa is the first locality in Vietnam to detect a human-to-human transmission case so far.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Health on February 1 announced an outbreak of the new coronavirus (nCoV) disease in the central province of Khanh Hoa one day after a resident tested positive with the virus.
The 25-year-old female patient is now in quarantine at Khanh Hoa Hospital of Tropical Diseases, the ministry said in a statement.
As of 5:00 pm Friday [January 31], Khanh Hoa had identified 23 suspected cases.
Khanh Hoa is home to Nha Trang city and the world’s famous beaches, welcoming millions of tourists per year, especially Chinese nationals.
In the announcement, the ministry stated that the nCoV is a person-to-person transmission, listed Type A infectious diseases with global health emergency.
So far, Vietnam has found six cases, including two Chinese nationals and three coming back to the country from Wuhan city where the nCoV epidemic broke out.
Vietnam made the announcement of the outbreak one day after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of a novel coronavirus a global health emergency, an acknowledgment of the risk the virus poses to countries beyond its origin in China and of the need for a more coordinated international response to it.
As of Saturday, the number of infected people surpass 11,302 globally, including more than 258 deaths, all in China.
The large majority of infections in other countries have been in people who were infected with the virus while in China and then traveled to the other nations.
