268 quarantined at home following contact with nCoV patient in Nha Trang

Authorities took the action after ascertaining that the tourist, during his five-day stay in the central province's popular beach town Nha Trang, had come into contact with 121 employees and 124 guests at two hotels, 18 hospital staff members and five interpreters and drivers, said Bui Xuan Minh, director of Khanh Hoa Health Department.

These individuals would have to stay at home for the duration of the quarantine and would be monitored on a daily basis, while the two hotels the Chinese tourist had stayed at have both been disinfected, Minh said.

The 46-year-old Chinese man was part of a group of tourists who had traveled on a Vietnam Airlines charter flight from China's Zhengzhou City in Henan Province to Nha Trang on January 23 and flew back home on January 28.

He developed a fever during the return flight and was quarantined upon landing and tests confirmed he was infected with the deadly virus.

Khanh Hoa is one of Vietnam's four localities that have recorded nCoV infections, the others being Ho Chi Minh City, the northern province of Vinh Phuc and the north-central province of Thanh Hoa.

Vietnam has so far reported 10 cases of nCoV infection, three of whom have been declared healthy and discharged from hospital.

As of Thursday, the nCoV epidemic had killed 565 people and infected more than 28,200 globally, mostly in mainland China, of whom 1,170 have recovered.