Vietnam to shorten COVID-19 quarantine time, likely to seven days, for vaccinated arrivals

People who have been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus should be placed under centralized quarantine for about seven days, instead of 21 days as present, when they enter Vietnam, a top pandemic control official has stated.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam made the statement when he chaired an online meeting with the authorities of Ho Chi Minh City, Bac Giang Province, and Bac Ninh Province on Wednesday to review epidemic prevention and control results.

Dam is also chief of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control

At the meeting, he asked the Ministry of Health to promptly issue a new coronavirus testing and screening protocol applicable to people who enter Vietnam from abroad.

Accordingly, the current mandatory 21-day quarantine period should be cut down to around seven days for those who have been inoculated against COVID-19, have had immune response to the virus or have tested negative for the virus, the steering committee said.

Earlier on May 5, the health ministry extended the centralized quarantine period from 14 to 21 days for close contacts of COVID-19 patients and for people entering Vietnam from abroad, as a move to beef up coronavirus containment.

At a later meeting on May 19, the deputy prime minister asked the health ministry to urgently develop and issue guidelines for combining different testing methods for international arrivals to Vietnam, first of all by air.

The guidelines must include classification of all people entering in Vietnam so that not every immigrant has to be quarantined for 21 or 14 days, but those meeting safety conditions may be subject to seven-day centralized quarantine before being monitored at their residence.

The flexible measure is significant as it facilitates the entry of foreign experts as well as the return of overseas Vietnamese, relieves crowding at isolation facilities, and help cut quarantine cost and time, the deputy prime minister said.

The health ministry on Thursday noon confirmed 102 new COVID-19 cases nationwide, including 96 domestic and six imported infections, of which 69 were detected in Bac Giang and Bac Ninh Provinces.

Ho Chi Minh City recorded 19 patients while Hanoi logged six.

Vietnam has so far documented 7,972 COVID-19 cases since early 2020, including 49 deaths, the ministry reported.

Since April 27, when the pandemic’s fourth wave began, 4,877 cases have been recorded across the Southeast Asian country.

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