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Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung (Photo: VGP)

On September 10, Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung presided over a meeting with relevant agencies on the extension of isolation at accommodation establishments for foreigners and Vietnamese entering the border. Dung said the Prime Minister's order is to reopen international routes step by step, keep cautious but not to inhibit development opportunities.

"Currently, there is a high demand of experts, businesses, and investors who want to come to Vietnam", Mr. Dung said.

Therefore, based on comments from ministries, tourism associations, businesses, the Government Office will synthesize and report to the Prime Minister at the Government's Standing meeting on Covid-19 prevention tomorrow. Accordingly, in terms of quarantine, before getting on the plane to Vietnam, passengers must prove to have a negative test result of the host country 3 days before the flight. After entering Vietnam, passengers must adhere to medical control and quarantine regulations.

Upon arrival in Vietnam, passengers are quarantined in accommodation facilities for a suitable number of days and during this time they will have two PCR tests. If both results are negative, they will be transferred to home monitoring. All testing and isolation costs will be paid for by the passengers themselves.

The above proposal firstly applies to officials holding diplomatic passports; international agencies and organizations; experts, managers, high-tech workers; investors, relatives of these people. Minister Mai Tien Dung also noted that when opening international routes, the number of visitors to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City will sharply rise, so the two localities need to increase their accommodation facilities, publish the list, and the costs for quarantine and tests.

Vietnam proposed to reconnect flight routes to certain countries from September. (Photo: VNA)

Passengers traveling from a third country, such as transit to Japan, Korea, and then back to Vietnam, will have to take another plane, and then comply with the compulsory 14-day isolation.

It is recommended that the Ministry of Health consider the readiness of PCR testing to return results quickly and accurately to passengers.

"We have to reform administrative and visa-related procedures, set up good information connecting with localities and businesses so that passengers can easily complete entering procedures and perform well in quarantine time," Dung said. He also claimed that he would advise the Government to direct the ministries and branches to provide specific technical guidance, in order not to cause difficulties or arising additional procedures.

On September 3, the Ministry of Transport reported in writing to the Prime Minister on the opening of flight routes with countries that are considered to have high safety capabilities. The ministry proposed on September 15 to connect routes with China, Japan, and South Korea. On September 22, flight routes with Laos, Cambodia and Taiwan are announced to be reopened.

After assessing the quarantine capacity, the Ministry of Transport proposed that there should be 2 flights per week to each country/ region mentioned above, which makes the estimated the number of on-board passengers nearly 5,000 people in Hanoi and HCMC.

From April 1, Vietnam halted all commercial flight routes with other countries. Recently, a number of foreign airlines have been re-exploited international routes to Vietnam to transport goods. Flights carrying passengers into Vietnam are now implemented according to the plans of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Those flights passengers are Vietnamese citizens with difficult circumstances, foreign experts, high-tech workers, all of whom have to be isolated from immediately after entry.

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