Vietnam has reversed the decision to stop the arrival of all international flights at its two largest airports just three days after implementing the ban, state media said on Wednesday.
On Monday, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) introduced the ban, which was set to last until at least June 7, yet international arrivals resumed on Wednesday with no explanation offered for the U-turn, according to online newspaper Vnexpress.
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Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport had also stopped inbound international flights.
City authorities had also imposed a two-week period of social distancing on Monday amid a steep rise in community transmission of the coronavirus.
Vietnam has been praised for its response to the pandemic, yet, after a month without any community transmission of the virus, local transmission cases emerged again on April 27, with more than 4,500 cases reported since then.
The Ministry of Health on Saturday said it had detected a new COVID-19 variant comprising characteristics from both the British and Indian strains of the virus, now renamed the alpha and delta strains by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Nguyen Thanh Long, Vietnam’s minister of health, said the new hybrid variant, which is highly transmissible through air, was detected through genetic sequencing on COVID-19 patients in Vietnam.
Vietnam has officially recorded 7,625 coronavirus cases and 48 deaths since the pandemic began. (dpa/NAN)
