Vietnam scraps COVID-19 quarantine for international travellers

Vietnam announced on Wednesday that they will be scrapping quarantine and other travel restrictions when it comes to foreign visitors in a move that will see the borders completely reopening after two years.

The Vietnamese government said that the changes will be implemented immediately and the foreign visitors will just have to provide a negative COVID-19 test on arrival.

The Health Ministry also stated that visitors must monitor their own health during the first 10 days of their stay and notify medical professionals in Vietnam if they experience any COVID-19-like symptoms during that time period.

According to the government website, Vietnam also announced the resumption of 15 days’ visa-free travel for citizens from 13 countries: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Britain, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Belarus.

The country closed its border in March 2020 amid growing Coronavirus numbers before reopening to international tourism last November for visitors travelling in strict bubbles. According to an AFP report, the country saw 200,000 cases every day due to the Omicron variant.

Although the number of cases dropped quite a bit due to the closed borders, the country suffered huge losses specially in the tourism industry. However, the health ministry believes that the situation “remains under control” with hospitalisation and death rates both staying low in the recent past.

According to the official data, Vietnam boasts of a high vaccination rate with around 98 per cent of adults receiving both vaccination doses and the country is currently trying to roll out booster shots.

Watch |Vietnam: No covid-19 curbs on international flights

(With agency inputs)