Vietnam mulls over halting visa waiver for EU and UK over COVID-19

March 09, 2020 | 10:23

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The National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control plans to propose the prime minister to suspend the unilateral visa waiver programme for the EU and the UK as a way to fight the COVID-19 outbreak.

vietnam mulls over halting visa waiver for eu and uk over covid 19

Deputy Prime Minister chairing the committee’s meeting on March 8

The committee at the meeting on March 8 discussed the suspension and agreed to make the proposal to the PM as the fatal epidemic situation has undergone serious developments, with new infections increasing rapidly in the EU, the ,UK and other countries.

Countries outside the EU bloc having more than 500 infection cases and the patient count increasing by 50 each day are also proposed to have the visa waiver policy suspended.

Deputy Prime Minister and head of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control Vu Duc Dam said that Vietnam is now in the second scenario of fighting against the novel epidemic. The country is preparing for potential serious developments, but he was quick to assure that the situation is still firmly under control.

From March 7, Vietnam has also started to apply compulsory electronic health declarations for all passengers entering Vietnam.

Deputy Prime Minister Dam also ordered compulsory health declarations for all Vietnamese starting from March 10.

According to the latest update from the Ministry of Health, COVID-19 has now infected 109,650 people globally, including 80,699 in China. As many as 101 countries and territories outside China report a total of 28,951 infections. The fatal epidemic has killed over 3,800 people, including 704 outside China.

The latest update on countries and territories outside of China with COVID-19 infections as of 6am, March 9

TT	Countries/territories	Infections	Deaths
1	Italy	7375	366
2	South Korea	7313	50
3	Iran	6566	194
4	France	1126	19
5	Germany	1040	0
6	Diamond Princess	696	7
7	Spain	673	17
8	US	530	21
9	Japan	461	6
10	Switzerland	332	2
11	UK	273	3
12	Netherlands	265	3
13	Sweden	203	0
14	Belgium	200	0
15	Norway	174	0
16	Singapore	150	0
17	Hong Kong (TQ)	115	2
18	Austria	104	0
19	Malaysia	99	0
20	Australia	80	3
21	Bahrain	79	0
22	Greece	73	0
23	Kuwait	64	0
24	Canada	64	0
25	Iraq	60	5
26	Iceland	55	0
27	Egypt	49	1
28	Thailand	47	1
29	Taiwan	45	1
30	UAE	45	0
31	India	39	0
32	Israel	39	0
33	Lebanon	32	0
34	Vietnam	30	0
35	Portugal	30	0
36	Brazil	25	0
37	Finland	23	0
38	Ireland	21	0
39	Algeria	20	0
40	Czech Republic	19	0
41	San Marino	16	1
42	Oman	16	0
43	Denmark	15	0
44	Russia	15	0
45	Qatar	15	0
46	Ecuador	14	0
47	Romania	14	0
48	Slovenia	12	0
49	Argentina	12	1
50	Saudi Arabic	11	0
51	Poland	11	0
52	Macau (China)	10	0
53	Croatia	10	0
54	The Philippines	10	1
55	Chile	10	0
56	Georgia	9	0
57	Mexico	7	0
58	Belarus	6	0
59	Azerbaijan	6	0
60	Indonesia	6	0
61	Peru	6	0
62	Pakistan	5	0
63	Estonia	5	0
64	New Zealand	5	0
65	Costa rica	5	0
66	Luxembourg	5	0
67	Senegal	4	0
68	Palestine	4	0
69	Afghanistan	4	0
70	Bulgaria	4	0
71	Maldives	4	0
72	Slovakia	3	0
73	South Afria	3	0
74	Hungary	2	0
75	Bosnia	2	0
76	Morocco	2	0
77	Cambodia	2	0
78	Cameroon	2	0
79	Tunisia	2	0
80	Latvia	2	0
81	Nepal	1	0
82	Sri Lanka	1	0
83	North Macedonia	1	0
84	Nigeria	1	0
85	Lithuania	1	0
86	Monaco	1	0
87	Dominican	1	0
88	Armenia	1	0
89	Andorra	1	0
90	Jordan	1	0
91	Ukraine	1	0
92	Liechtenstein	1	0
93	Bhutan	1	0
94	Gibraltar	1	0
95	Serbia	1	0
96	Vatican	1	0
97	Moldova	1	0
98	Malta	1	0
99	Togo	1	0
100	Paraguay	1	0
101	Colombia	1	0
Total	28,951	704