They include Hanoi, HCMC, Da Nang, the northern provinces of Quang Ninh, Lang Son, Lao Cai, Cao Bang, Ha Giang, and Lai Chau, and Kien Giang Province in the Mekong Delta, all popular tourist destinations or bordering China.

They have been asked to keep a close eye on everyone who came from infected regions in China in the last 14 days. 

Those with symptoms like fever, cough and breathing difficulties must be taken to medical facilities for treatment. The ministry wants the cities and provinces to place them and those who have been within two meters of them in quarantine.

Two Chinese people, a father and son due, were found with acute pneumonia in Saigon last Tuesday and hospitalized. One of them has recovered.

As of Monday 63 people who travelled to infected regions in China had fever, but 25 of them have tested negative for the virus and the rest are in quarantine.

The ministry has asked the ministries of public security, national defense, foreign affairs, transport, information and communications, and culture, sports and tourism for assistance.

It has sought personal information including the full name, age, passport number, travel itinerary, seat number in the vehicle by which they arrived, current address in Vietnam, and contact information of foreigners entering the country in the last 14 days and suspected of contracting the coronavirus.

Chinese officials said on Tuesday the acute pneumonia has claimed 106 lives and infected more than 4,500. The majority of patients are in Hubei Province, where the outbreak originated last December. Nearly 7,000 people suspected of contracting the virus are waiting for the test results.

Acute pneumonia caused by the nCoV virus has spread rapidly in 30 provinces across mainland China. Besides Vietnam, the disease has also spread to Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong, the U.S., Singapore, Malaysia, France, Canada and Germany.