A doctor preparing protective clothing before entering the nCoV patient isolation ward
at Saigon's Cho Ray Hospital. Photo by VnExpress/Huu Khoa. 

A 29-year old woman in nothern Vinh Phuc Province has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, becoming the nation’s 13th confirmed 2019-nCoV infection. 

The unnamed woman, hailing from the northern province’s Binh Xuyen District, was among a group of eight employees of Japan-based Nihon Plast Company Limited sent to train for two months in China’s Wuhan City, Hubei Province, the epicenter of the epidemic.

Five of her colleagues have tested positive since their return from Wuhan on January 17, and the woman was quarantined despite showing no symptoms of infection.

Though she has tested positive for the virus and has been quarantined at the Tam Dao District Health Center, she is in good health and has remained asymptomatic thus far, doctors said. Nine of the nation’s 13 confirmed infections so far have occurred in Vinh Phuc.

The Health Ministry has directed that local authorities closely monitor those who have come into contact with people infected with nCoV.

The 8 employees had returned to Vietnam on a Southern China Airlines flight (CZ8315) on January 17. They were picked up by the company car at Hanoi's Noi Bai Airport and attended a company meeting in Thien Ke Commune, Binh Son District, Vinh Phuc Province, about 18 km from the airport.

The 11th and 12th nCoV infections in the country, confirmed Thursday, are the 49-year-old mother and 16-year-old sister of one of the above-mentioned eight returning from Wuhan. 

Vietnam officially declared the 2019-nCoV an epidemic last Saturday. The other 10 infected cases include a cousin of one of the workers from Wuhan, a Vietnamese-American visitor who transited in Wuhan, a Chinese man from Wuhan and his son who met him in Vietnam, and a hotel receptionist who served the father and son in Nha Trang.

Three of the ten have been discharged from the hospital: the Nha Trang hotel employee, the Chinese son, and one of the workers who returned from Wuhan.

The global death toll from the epidemic has reached 638, with 636 dying in mainland China, one in the Philippines and one in Hong Kong.