Vietnam's 16th patient of the novel coronavirus is being checked at a hospital
in Vinh Phuc Province, northern Vietnam, February 23, 2020.
Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy. 

The last of 16 people who have been infected with the novel coronavirus in Vietnam has tested negative, doctors announced Sunday. 

They said the 50-year-old man will be tested again before he is discharged and released from quarantine. The native of Son Loi District in the northern Vinh Phuc Province is the father of Nguyen Thi Du, a 23-year-old woman who was one of eight people who returned from China’s Wuhan city, epicenter of the outbreak, in January. Six of the eight people were found infected later, and some of them passed it on to relatives and friends.  

The father was the 11th person in Vinh Phuc Province who tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and the only one still quarantined.

He had stayed with his daughter after she returned from Wuhan until she was quarantined on January 25. Other members of the family were also infected, but they have been treated successfully and discharged.

Doctor Nguyen Thanh Hai, Director of Vinh Phuc Health Department, said the father will be tested again to guarantee that he's free of the virus associated with Covid-19. He remains in quarantine and in stable health, Hai added.

Under the Health Ministry regulations, a person infected with the novel coronavirus is deemed healthy once she/he shows no sign of fever for three days and tests negative twice in three days. Other signs include improved clinical symptoms, overall stable status and vital signs, normal organ function and improved chest X-ray readings.

No Covid-19 infection has been recorded in Vietnam for the past 10 days.

Vietnam officially declared the coronavirus outbreak an epidemic on February 1.