Vietnam’s novel coronavirus infection number has risen to eight as the Ministry of Health announced a new case on Monday.

The new patient, a Vietnamese blue-collar worker at a company in Vinh Phuc, located in northern Vietnam, recently returned to the Southeast Asian country after having attended a vocational training program in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the viral outbreak, according to the Vietnamese health ministry.

She is the eight confirmed infection in Vietnam.

Before her, three of her co-workers, who had also joined the two-month training program in Wuhan, had tested positive for the new coronavirus last week.

Upon their arrival at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on January 17, 29-year-old V.H.L. and the three co-workers, together with four other, were picked up by their company’s bus to its headquarters in Vinh Phuc’s Binh Xuyen District.

The eight-people group joined a meeting at the company before L. shared a ride home with a colleague.

After L.’s three co-workers tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Friday, the other five, including L., was quarantined and sampled by a delegation of the Ministry of Health.

By that time, L. and another person in the group showed some symptoms of the infection.

L.’s sample returned positive for the killer virus, the health ministry confirmed on Monday morning.

She is now in stable conditions and being treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi.

The novel coronavirus has killed 361 people in mainland China and one outside the country, while infecting 17,386 others globally, an overwhelming majority of whom are in China, since the first outbreak in Wuhan in December 2019.

Vietnam has confirmed eight cases so far, including five Vietnamese, one Vietnamese American, and two Chinese.

One of the Chinese has been cured.

The World Health Organization has declared the virus a public health emergency of international concern.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam has grounded all flights to and from mainland China to curb the spread of the deadly virus.

Vietnam has also stopped issuing tourist visas to those coming from China, including Chinese and foreigners who have stayed in the mainland for 14 days – which is the incubation period of the new coronavirus.

Over 20 provinces and cities in the country have told school students to stay home for one week to prevent the viral contagion.

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