Vietnam Set To Lower Quarantine & Reopen International Air Links On January 1, 2022

Vietnam, a country that just recently started to welcome a small number of visitors to select destinations on package tours only, is expected to reopen for fully vaccinated visitors from January 1, 2022.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Health is proposing that fully vaccinated only need to quarantine for three nights with PCR-RT tests upon arrival and on day three, and monitor their health for a total of 14 days.

International flights to/from Vietnam would be restored in stages to ensure that foreign airlines would not have an advantage.

Here’s an excerpt from the Vietnam Net:

The new regulations will be effective from January 1, 2022, the day Vietnam is set to resume regular international flights on a pilot basis.

The arrivals must have proof of negative COVID-19 test results (using the gold-standard PCR method) within 72 hours prior to entry (except in the case of children under two years old), must declare their health status before entry and must install Vietnam’s PC-COVID app (available on both Android and iOS) for contact tracing and medical declaration purposes.

Two RT-PCR tests will be conducted, on the first and third day since the date of entry.

If the results return negative, then the entrants still need to self-monitor their health status for 14 days after arrival, but this is already a huge step down from the current policies of mandatory seven days of concentrated quarantine and seven days of follow-up medical self-observation.

If they are willing to get a COVID-19 test (RT-PCR) on the tenth day, then the medical self-observation could end then.

Infographic from VNExpress:

Conclusion

Vietnam has been highly restrictive on who has been allowed to enter the country ever since the pandemic began. Some international arrivals were sent to remote airports to do their mandatory quarantine.

The opening of select tourist destinations for international visitors on package tours must not have fared well.

This proposed three-day quarantine won’t open the tourism “floodgates” either but will make life easier for Vietnamese nationals, ex-pats, and those with ties with the country.

I would not count this starting in 12 days due to the Omicron variant making rounds and affecting entry requirements to many countries (making them more restrictive).