The two patients include a 64-year-old woman who is the female patient’s aunt and a 27-year-old man – the patient’s driver.

They are among those who had close contact with the 26-year-old patient and have been quarantined at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases.

The girl earlier visited her sister in the UK, then travelled to Italy and returned to Hanoi on March 1.

Earlier the same day, the Ministry of Health confirmed the 18th COVID-19 infection case in Vietnam, who is a patient returning from the epidemic-hit Republic of Korea.

The National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology said the 27-year-old male patient from Ninh Binh province arrived in Daegu city on February 17 and came back to Vietnam from Busan to Van Don airport in the northern province of Quang Ninh on March 4.

After entering Vietnam, the patient was brought to a concentrated quarantine area and had samples tested positive for the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

Vietnam has to date detected 20 COVID-19 infection cases. Of them, 16 patients had been successfully cured and discharged from hospitals./.

VNA