Foreigners entering HCMC for short visits strictly screened

Foreign nationals visiting HCMC for less than 14 days are tested for Covid-19 upon arrival and then every two days.

Those entering Vietnam for less than 14 days are exempt from centralized quarantine and instead can isolate themselves at their workplace, factories or hotels.

They are required to arrive one day before the start of their work – only experts and other indispensable personnel working for foreign agencies and family members of Vietnamese citizens are currently issued visas – and are only allowed to work if they test negative, the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control and Prevention said.

They need to have international medical insurance that will cover their medical and other expenses if they contract the disease in Vietnam.

They have to pay for their quarantine, transportation and Covid-19 testing expenses.

A day before leaving Vietnam they would have samples taken for testing, and a positive result will see health authorities quickly contact tracing people they had interacted with.

They are only allowed to leave their accommodation for attending meetings and going on field trips.

Organizations that send them have to submit entry and accommodation plans and travel itinerary to city health authorities at least two weeks before arrival.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc had said those entering Vietnam for short visits should limit their time at bars, dance clubs, karaoke parlors, and other crowded places to reduce the risk of infection.

The southern metropolis has given permission for at least 7,000 foreign investors and their family members to enter since March after the country imposed travel restrictions to combat the coronavirus.

The city has gone over two months without local spread.

No community transmission has been recorded anywhere in Vietnam for more than three weeks now.

The country has had 1,074 Covid-19 cases so far, 37 of them active, and 35 deaths.

By Trung Son – VnExpress.net – September 28, 2020