HCMC – Air passengers from or boarding flights departing from Level 4 areas, which are at extremely high risk of Covid-19 transmission, are subject to the Covid testing mandate, according to the Ministry of Transport’s latest announcement.
Deputy Minister of Transport Le Anh Tuan has signed Decision 2233 adjusting and supplementing Decision 1840 dated October 20.
Under the new decision, air passengers residing in, staying at, or taking flights departing from lockdown areas or areas of extremely high risk of Covid transmission must show a negative PCR/rapid Covid test result taken within the last 72 hours before departure.
Passengers must make health declarations, use the PC-Covid mobile app, and bear responsibility for the information declared. Moreover, passengers are banned from boarding flights if they develop symptoms of fever, coughing, shortness of breath, muscle pain, sore throat or loss of taste.
In addition, according to the latest decision, passengers flying from HCMC and Can Tho will not have to show a negative Covid test result before departure.
Earlier, under Decision 184, air passengers had to show proof of a negative Covid test before departure if they came from extremely high risk or lockdown areas or took flights from the Tan Son Nhat and Can Tho airports in HCMC and Can Tho.
In related news, the ministry also allowed the increase of flight frequency on domestic routes from December 2 to February 16, 2022.
The flight frequency on the busy route between Hanoi and HCMC will be adjusted upward to 25 round-trip flights per day from December 29 to January 18 and 52 daily flights from January 19 to February 16.
Similarly, other routes such as the HCMC-Danang route will see an increase of 20 daily flights and 27 daily flights during the two periods, respectively.
Besides this, the ministry tasked the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam with monitoring the developments of the local aviation market and the pandemic nationwide to propose adjustments to the flight frequency during the upcoming New Year’s Day and Lunar New Year holidays.
