Vaccine passports from 72 countries have been accepted by Vietnamese authorities to allow people to enter from abroad, and Vietnam is currently in discussions with 80 countries and territories for mutual recognition for each other's COVID-19 vaccine certification.
Le Thi Thu Hang, spokesperson for the Vietnamese foreign ministry, disclosed the information on Thursday during the regular press briefing held virtually from Hanoi.
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| 300 Vietnamese nationals repatriated from France flew back to Vietnam at Van Don International Airport in Quang Ninh Province __Photo: VNA/VNS Photo |
The 72 countries and territories in question are those whose representatives in Vietnam have officially presented the COVID-19 vaccination and/or recovery documentation to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and temporary recognition has been granted, under the new guidelines of safe, flexible, effective adaptation to COVID-19 pandemic released by the Government earlier this month, she noted.
People travelling from overseas with these documents showing that they have either been fully inoculated or recently recovered from COVID-19 can use the documents to enter Vietnam and would be eligible for the seven-day quarantine at centralized facilities as per the health ministry’s policies.
The spokesperson also said that the foreign ministry is “engaging in close discussions with around 80 partners for the mutual recognition of vaccine passports.”
In practice, the vaccine certificates granted by Vietnam have been accepted in a number of countries, allowing Vietnamese nationals or foreigners who have been vaccinated here to enter these countries, according to the spokesperson.
In addition, in line with the Prime Minister’s directive on facilitating travel and work of foreign experts and investors along with other specific groups, the foreign ministry is also working with ministries, agencies, and local authorities to address any outstanding issues and propose further easing of the approval process for entries of foreigners into Vietnam, especially the process of granting visas to take into account vaccine certificates or recent recovery, Hang said.
This would mean more streamlined administrative procedures and further decentralization of the authority within our apparatus, she noted.
Earlier, the foreign ministry has announced that they would recognize vaccines approved for use by the World Health Organization (WHO), US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), European Medicine Agency (EMA), and the Vietnamese health ministry – meaning that any of these following ten shots would suffice: Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, Johnson&Johnson’s Janssen, Oxford/AstraZeneca, Sinopharm’s Vero Cell along with the UAE version Hayat-Vax, Sinovac, Covishield (Oxford/AstraZeneca formulation, made in India), Sputnik V, and Abdala.- (VNS/VLLF)
