Vietnam’s two largest airports, Noi Bai in Hanoi and Tan Son Nhat in Ho Chi Minh City, will stop receiving flights from South Korea from 12pm today [March 1] until further notice as coronavirus infections in that country are rising fast.

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The decision is made after a large number of Vietnamese nationals returned home from North Korea, stressing the quarantine capacities in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Zing quoted a representative of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) as saying.

Airplanes coming from South Korea’s epidemic-hit areas will have to land at three airports namely Van Don in the northern province of Quang Ninh, Phu Cat in the central province of Binh Dinh, and Can Tho in the Delta city of Can Tho, the CAAV said on its website.

Over the last three days, thousands of Vietnamese citizens have arrived in the two airports in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City from South Korean cities. The sudden rise in arrivals has made quarantine facilities in the two cities overloaded.

The Vietnamese government has required all people arriving from South Korea to stay in mandatory quarantine for 14 days as a measure to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Vietnamese nationals living in South Korea are advised to consider returning home taking into account the mandatory 14-day quarantine.