Vietnam considers mutual recognition of vaccine passports with select countries

Vietnam is considering mutual recognition of vaccine passports with countries in Southeast Asia, China, Japan, South Korea, the EU and the U.S., the Government Office announced Sunday.

Such mutual recognition is « very important and especially necessary in the current context, » the announcement said.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has assigned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to coordinate with the Ministry of Health and work with authorities in other countries on this issue.

Many countries in the world have applied the vaccine passport to reopen and return socioeconomic activities to normal.

On September 4, the Van Don International Airport in the northern Quang Ninh Province received the very first flight operated under a trial vaccine passport program that requires foreign arrivals to be quarantined for just seven days.

That flight carried 297 Vietnamese passengers returning from Japan. All passengers had already received two doses of Covid-19 vaccines, with the second dose administered at least 14 days but no more than 12 months prior to the date of entry.

The airport received two more flights under the policy, bringing 345 Vietnamese back from the U.S. on September 9, and another bringing 301 Vietnamese passengers from France on September 23.

Vietnam is making plans to switch from the target of achieving « zero Covid-19 » to responding safely to the pandemic so that it can resume socio-economic activities after months of lockdowns.

By Viet Tuan – VnExpress.net – September 26, 2021