Vietnam drops health declaration for international arrivals

HANOI: International arrivals entering Vietnam will no longer have to submit health declaration forms starting from Wednesday, Xinhua quoted the daily newspaper Vietnam News report citing the country's Health Ministry as stating.

The ministry has submitted an urgent document to the People's Committees of provinces and cities with medical quarantine activities, asking the localities to temporarily suspend the requirement for health declarations, the newspaper reported.

The move is in response to recent reports of prolonged waits and congestion at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in southern Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City due to the rising number of international arrivals with the country's reopening and the upcoming four-day public holiday which starts on April 30, according to the report.

The ministry said it will continue to update and provide information related to the pandemic from home and abroad to carry out appropriate prevention and control solutions.

Previously in mid-March, Vietnam removed the requirements for quarantine and COVID-19 vaccine certificates upon entry for international arrivals with negative COVID-19 tests.

As of Tuesday, the country has reported more than 10.6 million cases of COVID-19 with over 43,000 deaths. More than 9.1 million COVID-19 patients, or nearly 86 per cent of the infections, have so far recovered.

The Southeast Asian country has administered more than 213 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to date.

-- BERNAMA