As the Covid-19 pandemic is expanding, foreign diplomatic representations in Vietnam have updated the situation either in their websites or Facebook pages, helped their citizens carry out administrative formalities to return home and warned them not to leave the Vietnam. 

The Biristh embassy in Vietnam told Hanoitimes via email that the embassy highly appreciated the Vietnamese government's response to Covid-19. “The system has been quick to identify and isolate cases. The WHO has commended the response,” the embassy wrote.

The embassy has advised all British citizens in Vietnam to follow and update information about Foreign and Commonwealth Office travel advice. “We are providing consular assistance to the British people affected. We advise all British nationals in Vietnam to follow our travel advice, which is kept under constant review,” the embassy wrote.

The Embassy of Norway to Vietnam has also advised Norwegian expats to avoid non essential abroad travel from March 14. “Travelers should follow news and travel information from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as the advice may be updated rapidly,” the embassy wrote in its website.

The Finnish embassy in Vietnam re-posted information of its Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ Facebook and Twitter.

“Many countries are placing travelers arriving from Finland under quarantine for 14 days,” the Ministry posted. “The coronavirus pandemic is having unprecedented effects on travel and tourism. Several countries are closing their borders and imposing restrictions also on internal movement.” 

The ministry required travelers to be resilient and able to deal with uncertainty. It requested  travelers to stay at their travel destinations until airlines resume their regular operations. Travel businesses and airlines are requested to help all Finns return home.

Since the EU Commission decided to lockdown the EU for 30 days from March 17 to limit the spread of the coronavirus, many governments of the Schengen Area have announced their decision to stop issuing visas in all of their embassies and consulates abroad. 

As the EU currently has the highest number of coronavirus infections outside China, some countries such as the US have banned flights from all EU countries altogether at least until mid-April. The main measure governments are taking to fight the virus is to restrict travel from the affected countries, according to SchengenVisaInfo.com, collecting coronavirus-related news from EU countries.

The US embassy in Hanoi has also announced that walk-in visa services are temporarily suspended at the US Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City and at the US embassy in Hanoi.