Covid-19 weekly update in Vietnam - Week 1, July 2021

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The medical staff of Vietnam are making more efforts in the fight against the 4th outbreak of Coronavirus. Still, the situation doesn’t seem to decrease despite the tireless hard work of all governmental officials, cadres, medical staff and citizens. On the contrary, Vietnam’s tourism is hoped to return in the near future.

Updates on Vietnam’s pandemic
Few days ago, on the 25th June,2021, the province of Ha Tinh confirmed 3 new covid infected cases including the patients marked BN15907 and BN15908. The daughter of this couple was considered an F1. She was only tested positive for the virus a few days afterwards. The new F0 was also reported to have travelled to Hanoi and to several places within the capital, which created a chain of new F1, F2 suspects. Therefore, the authorities of Hanoi had to quickly track all the possible suspects so as to firmly remain in the safe environment of the whole city.

As for the southern provinces of Vietnam, the outbreak shows no sign of degrading. For instance, the city of Ho chi Minh has exceeded 4.000 patients over the past week. The initial F0 is nowhere to be found and more public cross infections are being detected every single day. The local authorities then divided the city in more particular areas for covid-19 tests. They even practiced the test until late in the evening to make sure that they don’t miss any patients.

Due to the increasing level of epidemic, the Head of some big factory facilities in Binh Duong, 30km to the north of HCMC centre, decided to execute a prevention plan for their employees. For instance, the factory of tire production Radial turned its storage area into a place where their staff stay for the night for 2-3 weeks, this also increases productivity level of the facility. The managers also provided meals, sleeping places but also made use of the unused land to create leisures areas for the employees. At the same time, the factories joined the Ministry of Health in performing tests for the staff, to make sure that they are all negative and unable to spread the virus.
So far, Vietnam has updated in total:
- 19.310 positive cases within the country, 7.643 of which have recovered and are still being kept an eye on for any post-treatment changes. 84 patients are confirmed dead, most of whom were also reported to have been suffering from other severe diseases such as cancer, kidney failure, tuberculosis, etc.
- More than 1 million Vietnamese citizens have been injected with vaccine shots and only experienced mild side effects: muscle pain, tiredness, headache, ... .
- About 8 million vaccine doses are expected to be imported in Vietnam by the government. 

Travel possibilities in Vietnam for foreigners
Despite the ongoing situation of Coronavirus within Vietnam and all over the world, there is a likelihood that Vietnam’s tourism will rise again by the end of this year. The Vietnam Aviation Department predicts that in the 2nd half of 2021, a great number of Vietnamese will be vaccinated, which will be an ideal condition for tourism to gradually reopen. The Department is expecting to carry out a regular flight schedule starting from the 3rd trimester of 2021 with a quarantine-free permission, as long as the passengers own a vaccination certification.

Speaking of which, the province of Kien Giang also requests permission to welcome vaccinated guests from Russia during the upcoming period. Travellers are bound to travel to Phu Quoc island in a form of closed tourism: taking charter flights, spending nights at a single place, moving around the destination less, etc. As for northern Vietnam, Quang Ninh (famous for Ha Long Bay) might as well stand up for a trial in reopening outbound tourism activities. The province will issue directives for specific groups of tourists:
 - Covid-19 vaccinated and/or recovered individuals are likely to take a 7-day quarantine in public before travelling. In addition, having confirmation on being negative for covid and positive for having SARS-CoV-2 antibodies is necessary at border entry.
 - Other tourists will take a 14-day quarantine instead of 21 days, after the first 7 days, the person can get back home or to their local accommodation.
 - The above are applied for tourists following the decisions of Vietnamese government, National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, Agencies, organizations and individuals involved in the management, medical isolation and self-monitoring of the health of people on entry.
 - The directives are not applied for any individuals that travel to Vietnam for work up to 14 days. They will instead take quarantine at their accommodations and will have to pay for all of their expenses.
Stay in touch with Trusted DMC for more weekly updates on Vietnam’s pandemic situation.

* Source: VnExpress, VOV.VN, Dulichvietnam.

Previous weeks updates:
- Week 4. June 2021
- Week 3. June 2021