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Vietnam Halts Flights From UK, South Africa Over New Covid-19 Variant

It's not yet clear which countries are included as the epidemic situation in foreign countries are still developing.

VnExpress reports that on Tuesday, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc announced a ban of inbound flights from countries and territories which have detected cases of new COVID-19 mutations.

Phúc tasked the foreign affairs, health, and transport ministries with coordinating to draw up a full list of the impacted countries, but for now this covers the United Kingdom and South Africa. Both countries recently discovered highly transmissible variations of the virus within their borders.

The prime minister's order came a day after the Ministry of Health had proposed such a move, which in turn followed the ministry's confirmation last weekend of Vietnam's first mutated COVID-19 case, a 44-year-old Vietnamese woman who returned from the UK and was quarantined upon arrival.

Currently over 40 countries across multiple continents have restricted or outright banned travel from the UK or other nations that have recorded cases of the mutations.

Flights coming into Vietnam are already heavily restricted, with only government-organized repatriation flights and pre-apporoved charter flights for experts and managers allowed. All arrivals must undergo 14 days of mandatory quarantine.

As of this morning, January 7, Vietnam has recorded 1,505 cases of COVID-19, 114 of which are still undergoing treatment.

[Photo via PxHere]

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