The Ministry of Health set them up immediately after it was confirmed Thursday that three Vietnamese tested positive for the nCoV.

Based in hospitals in major cities and provinces, each team has at least two doctors and one ambulance that is equipped with emergency resuscitation facilities for patients and personal protective equipment for doctors and staff.

They will also provide support to hospitals that have patients possibly infected with the coronavirus.

Authorities are now concerned that three coronavirus-infected Vietnamese patients might have come into contact with a lot of people during the Tet holiday.

The three had returned from Wuhan a week before Tet, the Lunar New Year Festival, to Vinh Phuc and Thanh Hoa Provinces and Hanoi.

One of them is being treated at the Thanh Hoa General Hospital in the eponymous north central province and the other two at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi.

Earlier, on January 23, two Chinese nationals had become the first in Vietnam to be diagnosed with nCoV infection.

Li Zichao, 28, one of the two, had recovered by Tuesday morning, but his father remains on a ventilator, doctors at Cho Ray Hospital in HCMC said Wednesday.

The government has halted all flights to coronavirus-hit areas in China, suspended visas for visitors from there and quarantined Chinese workers returning to Vietnam after Tet.

As of Friday Vietnam had 97 suspected cases with symptoms like fever and cough, and is quarantining 32 pending test results.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a global public health emergency on Thursday.

The virus has spread from mainland China to Hong Kong, Macao, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, the U.S., South Korea, France, Germany, Canada, Vietnam, the UAE, Nepal, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, India, and the Philippines.

Chinese authorities said 213 people had died as of Friday morning out of more than 9,600 confirmed cases of the disease.