The report, released Thursday, says the Chinese employees are being isolated in their companies' dormitories, local hotels, while some suspected infection cases are being monitored at medical facilities.

A Chinese man is quarantined at the dormitory of a company in Ha Nam Province,
northern Vietnam. Photo by VnExpress/Anh Duy.

This has effectively meant that only about a third of the 33,770 Chinese nationals working legally in Vietnam are at work now. Before the Lunar New Year break, 26,000 had gone back home for their biggest and most important festival, the Lunar New Year, and only a little over 7,600 Chinese people returned to Vietnam to resume work.

On February 2, the ministry asked businesses and employers to stop accepting Chinese workers to return to work in Vietnam and foreign workers going through epidemic-stricken areas.

Preliminary reports from 41 out of 63 localities in the country show that of the Chinese nationals quarantined, 248 have been in Vietnam for more than 14 days, 1,085 for 10-13 days and the remaining 3,779, less than 10 days.

A man coming from China receives body temperature check in Hai Phong,
northern Vietnam, February 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Chinh.

Vietnam has confirmed16 infections of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) confirmed, 11 of whom are from the northern province of Vinh Phuc. Of the remaining five, three were detected in Ho Chi Minh City and one each in Khanh Hoa and Thanh Hoa.

Vietnam declared the nCoV outbreak an epidemic on February 1.

As of Thursday the global death toll had climbed to 1,491, including the first fatality in Japan and one each in Hong Kong and the Philippines. Confirmed infections topped 65,000. Over 7,000 patients have recovered.