HCMC – The prime minister has agreed to restart air transport services between Vietnam and China, while tasking the agencies concerned with studying the reopening of commercial flights to other countries.
On July 12, the Government Office announced the prime minister’s decision at a recent regular Government meeting on Covid-19 infection prevention, citing the prime minister as saying that flight frequency and the condition of flights between Vietnam and China will be decided by the aviation agencies of the two countries.
This is the first resumption of international air services allowed by the prime minister since April 1. However, the exact date of reopening the route has not been decided, VnExpress news site reported.
The ministries of Foreign Affairs and Transport were tasked with working with other countries to organize repatriation flights and increase commercial ones between Vietnam and these countries to bring home Vietnamese citizens from Seoul, Tokyo, Taiwan, Guangzhou, Vientiane and Phnom Penh.
The Government will create favorable conditions for Vietnamese citizens living abroad, foreign experts and overseas students to enter Vietnam, according to the announcement.
The prime minister also told the ministries of Transport, Foreign Affairs and Health to direct Vietnam Airlines to operate repatriation flights to transport Vietnamese citizens from Equatorial Guinea home as soon as possible.
Over 200 Vietnamese workers work there, said the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, adding that half of them have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Foreign experts, investors, diplomats, highly skilled workers and students are allowed to enter Vietnam and their parents, wives, husbands and children can also accompany them. However, they must take a quick test for Covid-19 and undergo a mandatory quarantine period.
To welcome a large number of foreigners and Vietnamese returnees, the agencies and departments were asked to set up an additional 10,000 concentrated quarantine centers.
Vietnam has gone 88 days without community transmission of the virus. Among 372 confirmed cases of Covid-19, 350 patients have made a full recovery and been discharged from hospitals, including a British pilot, the country’s most critical case of Covid-19.
