Vietnamese-American visitor confirmed 7th nCoV infection in Vietnam

The 73-year-old U.S. citizen boarded Flight 660 of China Southern Airlines to Vietnam from the U.S on January 14, transiting at the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan City, China, on January 15, for two hours, the Ministry of Health said Sunday.

He arrived at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCMC on January 16 and stayed at a hotel on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Road, which runs through downtown Districts 1 and 3.

He started coughing on January 27 and hotel staff took him to the HCMC Hospital of Tropical Diseases in District 5 on January 31.

He is now being quarantined at the hospital and on oxygen support to aid respiration.

The hotel where he stayed had six customers and eight staff. A rapid response team is observing them for signs of infection.

Local police have asked the hotel to not receive any other customers till they are cleared by authorities to do so.

The 73-year-old American is the seventh confirmed nCoV case in the country, the others being two Chinese nationals and four Vietnamese citizens - three returning from Wuhan, and a female hotel receptionist who has caught the coronavirus infection from the two Chinese nationals presently quarantined in Saigon.

Vietnam declared the novel coronavirus (nCoV) an national epidemic Saturday.

Three members of a French family have also been quarantined at the HCMC Hospital of Tropical Diseases after showing symptoms of 2019-nCoV.

As of Saturday, the country has reported 92 suspected cases with symptoms like high fever and cough, including some who visited infected areas in China. Of these, 27 remain quarantined pending test results.

The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in China had reached 304 by Saturday, according to China’s National Health Commission.

The virus claimed the first life outside China on Saturday, with a 44-year-old Chinese man succumbing in the Philippines.