Vietnam to shift from zero Covid-19 approach: govt

Sep 28, 2021 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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Vietnam is seeking to drop its “zero-Covid-19” approach, in order to add some flexibility in its effort to help the economy recover by routes including a restart of domestic and inbound tourism. The fresh stance was agreed at a Saturday meeting between the country’s National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control, and officials from several local governments.

A local authority that had previously been pushing for an easing of rules in order to enable inbound tourism, was the government of Phu Quoc island.

Corona Resort and Casino on Phu Quoc – the only casino in the country that is permitted to cater to local players – had temporarily closed from July 19, as a Covid-19 countermeasure.

At Saturday’s meeting, Vietnam’s prime minister, Pham Minh Chinh – also the head of the steering committee on Covid-19 – was cited as saying that transmission of the virus had been brought under control in “most of the country”, as reported by state-run media outlet, Viet Nam Government Portal.

Starting in April, the country had had an uptick of cases, with the southern metropolis, Ho Chi Minh City, amongst the hardest hit.

Localities deemed safe could ease their Covid-19 restrictions and revive business activities around the end of this month, the Vietnam prime minister said on Saturday as cited by local media outlet Tuoi Tre News.

As of Monday afternoon, Vietnam had recorded 9,300 new Covid-19 infections in 24 hours, taking the aggregate to over 760,000, reported local media outlet VN Express.

As of Monday, 8.3 million people in Vietnam had been fully vaccinated against the virus, which is equivalent to just 8.6 percent of the country’s total population of circa 96.5 million, the media outlet noted, citing official data.

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