The patients are Vietnamese nationals who returned on a repatriation flight from the United Arab Emirates last Sunday.
VnExpress reports that 11 of the 17 are women, while six are men. One is a newborn boy, while the others range from 20 to 58 years old.
They were on a special Vietnam Airlines flight which brought 297 Vietnamese from the UAE to Can Tho. All of the passengers and the flight crew were tested and quarantined at a university dorm in Bac Lieu Province.
The 17 who tested positive for coronavirus are now being treated at the Bac Lieu General Hospital.
This brings Vietnam's case total to 288, 55 of which are active. While this is the second-highest number of new cases in one day since the outbreak began in January, no community transmission of the virus has been detected anywhere in the country in three weeks.
According to the news source, over the last several weeks, Vietnam has brought back 1,700 citizens on humanitarian flights from Canada, Japan, France, Thailand and the UAE, while another 300 are scheduled to return from Canada, Malaysia and the US by Monday.
To date, about 21,000 people remain quarantined in Vietnam, with over 6,000 of them in hospitals or government-run facilities. The rest are being isolated at home.
Data from the Ministry of Health shows that 261,004 tests have been conducted, while the death toll associated with the novel coronavirus remains at zero, though the British pilot who is Saigon's last active patients remains in critical condition after a month of treatment.
[Photo: The repatriated Vietnamese nationals land at Can Tho Airport at night/Nguoi Lao Dong]
