Vietnam has so far recognized vaccine passports from 72 countries as part of efforts to reopen the economy after several months under Covid-caused impact.

Visitors arrive in Danang on a domestic flight. Photo: Vietnam Airlines

Visitors from those countries will be quarantined for one week, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) Le Thi Thu Hang said at the press conference today.

Local authorities have negotiated with 80 more nations to adopt immunity passports on a mutual recognition basis.

Meanwhile, fully-vaccinated Vietnamese are welcome in dozens of countries, Hang said.

She went on to say that to facilitate the entry of visitors, MoFA has suggested some relaxed regulations on approving vaccine passports in the visa issuance process.

Vaccine passports are among tools enabling countries to pursue recovery plans, Vietnam is no exception. In late September, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh asked local authorities to adopt it.

Visitors to Vietnam must test negative for the virus within 72 hours before arrival.

In addition, Vietnam favors kinds of vaccines in adopting immunity passports. It will accept types of vaccines that get emergency use authorization by the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and Vietnam’s Ministry of Health, the spokesperson said at the press conference on October 7.

Since early September, Vietnam has received about 1,000 visitors who are Vietnamese returnees from Japan, France, and the US.

As the vaccination rate increased, Vietnam has started welcoming visitors for domestic tours. Passengers of aviation, railway, and on road must be double dosed or single dosed at least.

So far, about 70 million doses have been administered, including 20 million people fully inoculated in Vietnam.