Three of them are members of the same family who lived with a Covid-19 patient in Dubai.

Of the new cases, six are male and 11 female. One of the patients is an newborn boy and the rest are between 20 and 58 years of age.

The new patients are among 297 Vietnamese repatriated from the UAE on Vietnam Airlines flight VN0088 last Sunday. The flight landed at the Can Tho Airport in the Mekong Delta and all passengers were quarantined at a university dorm in nearby Bac Lieu Province.

The 17 infected are now treated at the Bac Lieu General Hospital.

The flight crew have also been quarantined.

Thursday's update has raised Vietnam's infection tally to 288, of which 55 are active. Twenty-one of the active cases have tested negative at least once.

Vietnam has ended 21 days without community tranmission of the disease. Officials have said that although the condition inside Vietnam is stable, authorities need to tighten control on all arrivals from abroad.

In April and early May, Vietnam has repatriated 1,700 citizens from Canada, Japan, France, Thailand and the UAE. Another 300 Vietnamese are expected to return from Canada, Malaysia and the U.S. by Monday.

Around 21,000 people are currently quarantined in Vietnam. Over 6,100 of them are quarantined in hospitals and isolation camps, while the rest are self-isolated at home.

The Covid-19 pandemic has spread to 212 countries and territories, with more than 265,600 deaths reported so far.