Vietnam confirmed the 14th patient infected with the novel coronavirus on Sunday, who comes from Vinh Phuc Province, located in the northern part of the country.  

The patient is a 55-year-old neighbor of N.T.D., who was among a group of eight Vinh Phuc workers that returned to Vietnam on January 17, after having attended a vocational training program in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the viral outbreak, according to the Ministry of Health.

Six of the eight group members have now been confirmed to catch the novel coronavirus.

The new patient visited D. for one hour on January 28 so the person was added to a list of those having close contact with a confirmed infection for monitoring, the ministry said.

The patient started to have a fever, headache, and runny nose on February 2 and was isolated in Binh Xuyen District, Vinh Phuc.

Tests later at the National Institute Of Hygiene And Epidemiology, located in Hanoi, showed that the person had been infected with the virus.

The patient is now in quarantine at a medical facility in Binh Xuyen District, Vinh Phuc.

Vietnam has confirmed 14 infections so far, including eleven Vietnamese, one Vietnamese American, and two Chinese.

Among them, one Chinese and two Vietnamese had fully recovered and been discharged from the hospital as of Thursday. They were all treated for free.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the new coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern.

"New infection cases on Saturday recorded the first drop since Feb. 1, falling back below 3,000 to 2,656 cases. Of those, 2,147 cases were in Hubei," Reuters reported on Sunday.

"Total confirmed coronavirus cases in China stood at 37,198, commission data showed."

The virus has spread from Wuhan to 27 countries and regions, infected more than 330 people, and killed two outside mainland China, in Hong Kong and the Philippines. Both victims were Chinese.

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