Vietnam PM declares coronavirus epidemic, flights to and from China grounded

Arriving passengers are screened through a thermal scanner at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi. Vietnam has suspended all China flights as part of "strengthening measures" against the coronavirus outbreak, its civil aviation authority said in a statement on Saturday (Feb 1).

HANOI (Vietnam News/ANN): Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc just signed a decision declaring the 2019 novel coronavirus (nCoV) an epidemic in Vietnam, following the sixth confirmed case of infection in the country earlier on Saturday (Feb 1).

The declaration notes the starting date of the epidemic as January 23, where the first two cases of the pneumonia-like virus infection in Vietnam were confirmed to be a pair of Chinese father and son originally from Wuhan, China.