Vietnam yesterday announced an end to its quarantine mandate for international travelers, as it is seeking to restart its tourism industry after two years of strict COVID-19 restrictions.
The only virus-related requirement for visitors would be a negative COVID-19 test, the Vietnamese Ministry of Health said in a statement.
The country’s tourism sector was worth up to US$32 billion a year before the COVID-19 pandemic, but it ground to a standstill after the virus emerged and the Vietnamese government restricted travel.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Virus curbs have slowly been eased in the past few months, with visitors trickling back in since November last year to play golf at resorts under a “travel bubble” arrangement.
Vietnam also announced the resumption of 15 days’ visa-free travel for citizens from 13 states: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the UK, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Belarus.
The country, which has a population of 97 million, is still reporting nearly 200,000 new COVID-19 cases per day as the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 sweeps through.
However, the ministry said that the situation “remains under control” with hospitalization and death rates staying low.
Officials attribute that to the high COVID-19 vaccination rate, with 98 percent of adults fully inoculated, ministry data showed.
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