A soldier of the Vietnamese Army's Chemical Division with a protective suit, mask and a chemical sprayer on Truc Bach Street in Hanoi on March 7, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy.

Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said Saturday that the French, Italian and British embassies in Hanoi have been given information about 26-year-old Nguyen Hong Nhung, who tested positive for the novel coronavirus Friday after traveling to the three European countries last month.

The ministry also instructed the Vietnamese embassies in Paris, London and Rome to talk to relevant authorities in those countries and share details about Nhung’s travel, and notify countries whose citizens had traveled on the same flight with her.

The provision of relevant information happened soon after Nhung tested positive for the coronavirus, becoming Hanoi’s first infection and the nation’s 17th.

Nhung had left Hanoi's Noi Bai Airport on February 15 to visit family members living in London, England. Three days later, she traveled from London to Milan City, in the province of Lombardy, Italy, and returned to London on February 20.

During her time in Milan, Lombardy had not recorded any Covid-19 positive case.

On February 25, she traveled from London to Paris to visit her sister. She contracted a cough on February 29, but did not get it checked.

On March 1, she reportedly felt some body pain and fatigue, but it was unclear if she had a fever. The same day, she boarded flight VN54 of Vietnam Airlines from London and landed in Hanoi at 4:30 a.m. on March 2. She did not have a fever then.

After completing entry procedures, the patient was allowed to drive a family car home to Truc Bach Street in Ba Dinh District’s Truc Bach Ward.

Later, she developed a mild fever and coughed a lot, and was admitted to Hong Ngoc Hospital in Ba Dinh District Thursday. The very same day, she was transferred to the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases where she tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Nhung has been quarantined and is undergoing treatment at Campus No.2 of the Hanoi Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases. Her fever has subsided and she is in stable health, the health ministry said.

Vietnam has recorded five new infections since Friday. The patients include Nhung (17th patient), a 27-year-old man returning to Vietnam from South Korea's Daegu City (18th), the personal chauffeur and an aunt of Nhung (19th and 20th) and a 61-year-old man who was on the same flight as Nhung (21st patient).

The 18th patient hails from northern Thai Binh Province and has been quarantined in Ninh Binh Province, northern Vietnam. The four remaining patients are all Hanoi residents.

Before Nhung tested positive, all 16 persons confirmed with Covid-19 infections in Vietnam had been discharged from hospitals and the nation had recorded no new infection for 22 consecutive days.

The global death toll has reached nearly 3,600 in 102 countries and territories, mostly in mainland China (3,097), followed by Italy (233), Iran (145) and South Korea (50).