Two Chinese patients are undergoing treatment inside the quarantined area. — Photo thanhnien.vnHCM CITY — Two Chinese visitors are in hospital in HCM City infected with coronavirus.

The pair have been identified as father and son, Li Ding, 66, and 28-year-old Li Zichao.

They were admitted to hospital on Wednesday suffering from for pneumonia and later tested positive for corona virus.

According to initial findings, they travelled from Wuhan, China to Hà Nội on January 13 and stayed till January 16.

On January 17, they flew to Khánh Hoà Province’s Nha Trang City and left to HCM City on January 19. On January 20, they visited Long An Province.

The Ministry of Health (MoH) said both patients are recovering in Chợ Rẫy Hospital.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc issued an urgent message asking the MoH and related agencies to pull out all the stops to prevent the virus, tighten management over immigration at border gates and report suspected cases to medical facilities to control the disease.

Hà Nội also reported two suspected cases on Thursday, including an overseas Vietnamese student coming back from Wuhan and a trader at a Việt Nam-China border market.

The two patients were admitted to Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Đông Anh District, suffering fever and sore throats. 

They are being quarantined pending test results from the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.

The coronavirus can spread among people through the respiratory tract, just like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) which killed some 650 people in mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002 and 2003.

The first case was reported on December 31, 2019. Japan, China’s Taiwan, Macau, Thailand and the US have also announced infected cases.

The death toll rose to 17 by Thursday with hundreds of others were testing positive for the virus.

China imposed quarantine over Wuhan City on Thursday, halting all outward flights and trains. — VNS