The Ministry of Health has proposed a shorter quarantine time for people who have Covid-19 vaccine passports.
The proposal was made by Dang Quang Tan, Head of the ministry's General Department of Preventive Medicine at a meeting of the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control in Hanoi on April 9.According to the official, vaccine passport holders should spend seven days at government-run quarantine facilities and take two tests. If the tests show negative results, they can leave and self-quarantine at home for an additional seven days.
Tan said that a vaccine passport must include a QR code or its holder should show a Covid-19 vaccination certificate issued by competent authorities in countries and territories that have reached bilateral and multilateral agreements with Vietnam on this regard when entering Vietnam.
"People with vaccine passports must be fully injected at least two weeks before their entry to Vietnam and less than 12 months since their last shots," he noted.
The official also mentioned the high risk of Covid-19 outbreaks following the roll-out of the vaccine passport programme, given the small number of vaccinated people in Vietnam.
Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, who is also head of the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control, asked for the co-ordination between the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and other relevant ministries and agencies to draw up a roadmap on reopening borders for foreign business people and tourists, targeting those from countries that have put the pandemic under control.
As of Saturday morning, Vietnam has gone through 16 days without reporting any locally-transmitted infections and the national count now stands at 2,683, including 2,429 recoveries.