vietnam travel post covid

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Vietnam Traveler View

Travel health notices, vaccines and medicines, non-vaccine-preventable diseases, stay healthy and safe.

• Packing List

After Your Trip

There are no notices currently in effect for Vietnam.

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Check the vaccines and medicines list and visit your doctor at least a month before your trip to get vaccines or medicines you may need. If you or your doctor need help finding a location that provides certain vaccines or medicines, visit the Find a Clinic page.

Routine vaccines

Recommendations.

Make sure you are up-to-date on all routine vaccines before every trip. Some of these vaccines include

• Chickenpox (Varicella)
• Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis
• Flu (influenza)
• Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR)

Immunization schedules

All eligible travelers should be up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines. Please see  Your COVID-19 Vaccination  for more information. 

COVID-19 vaccine

Chikungunya

There has been evidence of chikungunya virus transmission in Vietnam within the last 5 years. Chikungunya vaccination may be considered for the following travelers:

• People aged 65 years or older, especially those with underlying medical conditions, who may spend at least 2 weeks (cumulative time) in indoor or outdoor areas where mosquitoes are present in Vietnam, OR
• People planning to stay in Vietnam for a cumulative period of 6 months or more

Chikungunya - CDC Yellow Book

Hepatitis A

Recommended for unvaccinated travelers one year old or older going to Vietnam.

Infants 6 to 11 months old should also be vaccinated against Hepatitis A. The dose does not count toward the routine 2-dose series.

Travelers allergic to a vaccine component or who are younger than 6 months should receive a single dose of immune globulin, which provides effective protection for up to 2 months depending on dosage given.

Unvaccinated travelers who are over 40 years old, immunocompromised, or have chronic medical conditions planning to depart to a risk area in less than 2 weeks should get the initial dose of vaccine and at the same appointment receive immune globulin.

Hepatitis A - CDC Yellow Book

Dosing info - Hep A

Hepatitis B

Recommended for unvaccinated travelers of all ages traveling to Vietnam.

Hepatitis B - CDC Yellow Book

Dosing info - Hep B

Japanese Encephalitis

Recommended for travelers who

• Are moving to an area with Japanese encephalitis to live
• Spend long periods of time, such as a month or more, in areas with Japanese encephalitis
• Frequently travel to areas with Japanese encephalitis

Consider vaccination for travelers

• Spending less than a month in areas with Japanese encephalitis but will be doing activities that increase risk of infection, such as visiting rural areas, hiking or camping, or staying in places without air conditioning, screens, or bed nets
• Going to areas with Japanese encephalitis who are uncertain of their activities or how long they will be there

Not recommended for travelers planning short-term travel to urban areas or travel to areas with no clear Japanese encephalitis season. 

Japanese encephalitis - CDC Yellow Book

Japanese Encephalitis Vaccine for US Children

CDC recommends that travelers going to certain areas of Vietnam take prescription medicine to prevent malaria. Depending on the medicine you take, you will need to start taking this medicine multiple days before your trip, as well as during and after your trip. Talk to your doctor about which malaria medication you should take.

Find  country-specific information  about malaria.

Malaria - CDC Yellow Book

Considerations when choosing a drug for malaria prophylaxis (CDC Yellow Book)

Malaria information for Vietnam.

Cases of measles are on the rise worldwide. Travelers are at risk of measles if they have not been fully vaccinated at least two weeks prior to departure, or have not had measles in the past, and travel internationally to areas where measles is spreading.

All international travelers should be fully vaccinated against measles with the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, including an early dose for infants 6–11 months, according to  CDC’s measles vaccination recommendations for international travel .

Measles (Rubeola) - CDC Yellow Book

Dogs infected with rabies are sometimes found in Vietnam.

If rabies exposures occur while in Vietnam, rabies vaccines are typically available throughout most of the country.

Rabies pre-exposure vaccination considerations include whether travelers 1) will be performing occupational or recreational activities that increase risk for exposure to potentially rabid animals and 2) might have difficulty getting prompt access to safe post-exposure prophylaxis.

Please consult with a healthcare provider to determine whether you should receive pre-exposure vaccination before travel.

For more information, see country rabies status assessments .

Rabies - CDC Yellow Book

Recommended for most travelers, especially those staying with friends or relatives or visiting smaller cities or rural areas.

Typhoid - CDC Yellow Book

Dosing info - Typhoid

• Avoid contaminated water

Leptospirosis

How most people get sick (most common modes of transmission)

• Touching urine or other body fluids from an animal infected with leptospirosis
• Swimming or wading in urine-contaminated fresh water, or contact with urine-contaminated mud
• Drinking water or eating food contaminated with animal urine
• Avoid contaminated water and soil
• Avoid floodwater

Clinical Guidance

Schistosomiasis

• Wading, swimming, bathing, or washing in contaminated freshwater streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, or untreated pools.

Avoid bug bites

• Mosquito bite
• Avoid Bug Bites
• Mosquito bite
• An infected pregnant woman can spread it to her unborn baby

Airborne & droplet

Avian/bird flu.

• Being around, touching, or working with infected poultry, such as visiting poultry farms or live-animal markets
• Avoid domestic and wild poultry
• Breathing in air or accidentally eating food contaminated with the urine, droppings, or saliva of infected rodents
• Bite from an infected rodent
• Less commonly, being around someone sick with hantavirus (only occurs with Andes virus)
• Avoid rodents and areas where they live
• Avoid sick people

Tuberculosis (TB)

• Breathe in TB bacteria that is in the air from an infected and contagious person coughing, speaking, or singing.

Learn actions you can take to stay healthy and safe on your trip. Vaccines cannot protect you from many diseases in Vietnam, so your behaviors are important.

Eat and drink safely

Food and water standards around the world vary based on the destination. Standards may also differ within a country and risk may change depending on activity type (e.g., hiking versus business trip). You can learn more about safe food and drink choices when traveling by accessing the resources below.

• Choose Safe Food and Drinks When Traveling
• Water Treatment Options When Hiking, Camping or Traveling
• Global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
• Avoid Contaminated Water During Travel

You can also visit the Department of State Country Information Pages for additional information about food and water safety.

Prevent bug bites

Bugs (like mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas) can spread a number of diseases in Vietnam. Many of these diseases cannot be prevented with a vaccine or medicine. You can reduce your risk by taking steps to prevent bug bites.

What can I do to prevent bug bites?

• Cover exposed skin by wearing long-sleeved shirts, long pants, and hats.
• Use an appropriate insect repellent (see below).
• Use permethrin-treated clothing and gear (such as boots, pants, socks, and tents). Do not use permethrin directly on skin.
• Stay and sleep in air-conditioned or screened rooms.
• Use a bed net if the area where you are sleeping is exposed to the outdoors.

What type of insect repellent should I use?

• FOR PROTECTION AGAINST TICKS AND MOSQUITOES: Use a repellent that contains 20% or more DEET for protection that lasts up to several hours.
• Picaridin (also known as KBR 3023, Bayrepel, and icaridin)
• Oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE) or para-menthane-diol (PMD)
• 2-undecanone
• Always use insect repellent as directed.

What should I do if I am bitten by bugs?

• Avoid scratching bug bites, and apply hydrocortisone cream or calamine lotion to reduce the itching.
• Check your entire body for ticks after outdoor activity. Be sure to remove ticks properly.

What can I do to avoid bed bugs?

Although bed bugs do not carry disease, they are an annoyance. See our information page about avoiding bug bites for some easy tips to avoid them. For more information on bed bugs, see Bed Bugs .

For more detailed information on avoiding bug bites, see Avoid Bug Bites .

Some diseases in Vietnam—such as dengue, Zika, and filariasis—are spread by bugs and cannot be prevented with a vaccine. Follow the insect avoidance measures described above to prevent these and other illnesses.

Stay safe outdoors

If your travel plans in Vietnam include outdoor activities, take these steps to stay safe and healthy during your trip.

• Stay alert to changing weather conditions and adjust your plans if conditions become unsafe.
• Prepare for activities by wearing the right clothes and packing protective items, such as bug spray, sunscreen, and a basic first aid kit.
• Consider learning basic first aid and CPR before travel. Bring a travel health kit with items appropriate for your activities.
• If you are outside for many hours in heat, eat salty snacks and drink water to stay hydrated and replace salt lost through sweating.
• Protect yourself from UV radiation : use sunscreen with an SPF of at least 15, wear protective clothing, and seek shade during the hottest time of day (10 a.m.–4 p.m.).
• Be especially careful during summer months and at high elevation. Because sunlight reflects off snow, sand, and water, sun exposure may be increased during activities like skiing, swimming, and sailing.
• Very cold temperatures can be dangerous. Dress in layers and cover heads, hands, and feet properly if you are visiting a cold location.

Stay safe around water

• Swim only in designated swimming areas. Obey lifeguards and warning flags on beaches.
• Practice safe boating—follow all boating safety laws, do not drink alcohol if driving a boat, and always wear a life jacket.
• Do not dive into shallow water.
• Do not swim in freshwater in developing areas or where sanitation is poor.
• Avoid swallowing water when swimming. Untreated water can carry germs that make you sick.
• To prevent infections, wear shoes on beaches where there may be animal waste.

Leptospirosis, a bacterial infection that can be spread in fresh water, is found in Vietnam. Avoid swimming in fresh, unchlorinated water, such as lakes, ponds, or rivers.

Keep away from animals

Most animals avoid people, but they may attack if they feel threatened, are protecting their young or territory, or if they are injured or ill. Animal bites and scratches can lead to serious diseases such as rabies.

Follow these tips to protect yourself:

• Do not touch or feed any animals you do not know.
• Do not allow animals to lick open wounds, and do not get animal saliva in your eyes or mouth.
• Avoid rodents and their urine and feces.
• Traveling pets should be supervised closely and not allowed to come in contact with local animals.
• If you wake in a room with a bat, seek medical care immediately. Bat bites may be hard to see.

All animals can pose a threat, but be extra careful around dogs, bats, monkeys, sea animals such as jellyfish, and snakes. If you are bitten or scratched by an animal, immediately:

• Wash the wound with soap and clean water.
• Go to a doctor right away.
• Tell your doctor about your injury when you get back to the United States.

Consider buying medical evacuation insurance. Rabies is a deadly disease that must be treated quickly, and treatment may not be available in some countries.

Reduce your exposure to germs

Follow these tips to avoid getting sick or spreading illness to others while traveling:

• Wash your hands often, especially before eating.
• If soap and water aren’t available, clean hands with hand sanitizer (containing at least 60% alcohol).
• Don’t touch your eyes, nose, or mouth. If you need to touch your face, make sure your hands are clean.
• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) when coughing or sneezing.
• Try to avoid contact with people who are sick.
• If you are sick, stay home or in your hotel room, unless you need medical care.

Avoid sharing body fluids

Diseases can be spread through body fluids, such as saliva, blood, vomit, and semen.

Protect yourself:

• Use latex condoms correctly.
• Do not inject drugs.
• Limit alcohol consumption. People take more risks when intoxicated.
• Do not share needles or any devices that can break the skin. That includes needles for tattoos, piercings, and acupuncture.
• If you receive medical or dental care, make sure the equipment is disinfected or sanitized.

Know how to get medical care while traveling

Plan for how you will get health care during your trip, should the need arise:

• Carry a list of local doctors and hospitals at your destination.
• Review your health insurance plan to determine what medical services it would cover during your trip. Consider purchasing travel health and medical evacuation insurance.
• Carry a card that identifies, in the local language, your blood type, chronic conditions or serious allergies, and the generic names of any medications you take.
• Some prescription drugs may be illegal in other countries. Call Vietnam’s embassy to verify that all of your prescription(s) are legal to bring with you.
• Bring all the medicines (including over-the-counter medicines) you think you might need during your trip, including extra in case of travel delays. Ask your doctor to help you get prescriptions filled early if you need to.

Many foreign hospitals and clinics are accredited by the Joint Commission International. A list of accredited facilities is available at their website ( www.jointcommissioninternational.org ).

In some countries, medicine (prescription and over-the-counter) may be substandard or counterfeit. Bring the medicines you will need from the United States to avoid having to buy them at your destination.

Malaria is a risk in some parts of Vietnam. If you are going to a risk area, fill your malaria prescription before you leave, and take enough with you for the entire length of your trip. Follow your doctor’s instructions for taking the pills; some need to be started before you leave.

Select safe transportation

Motor vehicle crashes are the #1 killer of healthy US citizens in foreign countries.

In many places cars, buses, large trucks, rickshaws, bikes, people on foot, and even animals share the same lanes of traffic, increasing the risk for crashes.

Be smart when you are traveling on foot.

• Use sidewalks and marked crosswalks.
• Pay attention to the traffic around you, especially in crowded areas.
• Remember, people on foot do not always have the right of way in other countries.

Riding/Driving

Choose a safe vehicle.

• Choose official taxis or public transportation, such as trains and buses.
• Ride only in cars that have seatbelts.
• Avoid overcrowded, overloaded, top-heavy buses and minivans.
• Avoid riding on motorcycles or motorbikes, especially motorbike taxis. (Many crashes are caused by inexperienced motorbike drivers.)
• Choose newer vehicles—they may have more safety features, such as airbags, and be more reliable.
• Choose larger vehicles, which may provide more protection in crashes.

Think about the driver.

• Do not drive after drinking alcohol or ride with someone who has been drinking.
• Consider hiring a licensed, trained driver familiar with the area.
• Arrange payment before departing.

Follow basic safety tips.

• Wear a seatbelt at all times.
• Sit in the back seat of cars and taxis.
• When on motorbikes or bicycles, always wear a helmet. (Bring a helmet from home, if needed.)
• Avoid driving at night; street lighting in certain parts of Vietnam may be poor.
• Do not use a cell phone or text while driving (illegal in many countries).
• Travel during daylight hours only, especially in rural areas.
• If you choose to drive a vehicle in Vietnam, learn the local traffic laws and have the proper paperwork.
• Get any driving permits and insurance you may need. Get an International Driving Permit (IDP). Carry the IDP and a US-issued driver's license at all times.
• Check with your auto insurance policy's international coverage, and get more coverage if needed. Make sure you have liability insurance.
• Avoid using local, unscheduled aircraft.
• If possible, fly on larger planes (more than 30 seats); larger airplanes are more likely to have regular safety inspections.
• Try to schedule flights during daylight hours and in good weather.

Medical Evacuation Insurance

If you are seriously injured, emergency care may not be available or may not meet US standards. Trauma care centers are uncommon outside urban areas. Having medical evacuation insurance can be helpful for these reasons.

Helpful Resources

Road Safety Overseas (Information from the US Department of State): Includes tips on driving in other countries, International Driving Permits, auto insurance, and other resources.

The Association for International Road Travel has country-specific Road Travel Reports available for most countries for a minimal fee.

For information traffic safety and road conditions in Vietnam, see Travel and Transportation on US Department of State's country-specific information for Vietnam .

Maintain personal security

Use the same common sense traveling overseas that you would at home, and always stay alert and aware of your surroundings.

Before you leave

• Research your destination(s), including local laws, customs, and culture.
• Monitor travel advisories and alerts and read travel tips from the US Department of State.
• Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) .
• Leave a copy of your itinerary, contact information, credit cards, and passport with someone at home.
• Pack as light as possible, and leave at home any item you could not replace.

While at your destination(s)

• Carry contact information for the nearest US embassy or consulate .
• Carry a photocopy of your passport and entry stamp; leave the actual passport securely in your hotel.
• Follow all local laws and social customs.
• Do not wear expensive clothing or jewelry.
• Always keep hotel doors locked, and store valuables in secure areas.
• If possible, choose hotel rooms between the 2nd and 6th floors.

To call for emergency services while in Vietnam, dial 115 for an ambulance, 114 for the fire department, and 113 for the police. Write these numbers down to carry with you on your trip.

Learn as much as you can about Vietnam before you travel there. A good place to start is the country-specific information on Vietnam from the US Department of State

Healthy Travel Packing List

Use the Healthy Travel Packing List for Vietnam for a list of health-related items to consider packing for your trip. Talk to your doctor about which items are most important for you.

Why does CDC recommend packing these health-related items?

It’s best to be prepared to prevent and treat common illnesses and injuries. Some supplies and medicines may be difficult to find at your destination, may have different names, or may have different ingredients than what you normally use.

If you are not feeling well after your trip, you may need to see a doctor. If you need help finding a travel medicine specialist, see Find a Clinic . Be sure to tell your doctor about your travel, including where you went and what you did on your trip. Also tell your doctor if you were bitten or scratched by an animal while traveling.

If your doctor prescribed antimalarial medicine for your trip, keep taking the rest of your pills after you return home. If you stop taking your medicine too soon, you could still get sick.

Malaria is always a serious disease and may be a deadly illness. If you become ill with a fever either while traveling in a malaria-risk area or after you return home (for up to 1 year), you should seek immediate medical attention and should tell the doctor about your travel history.

For more information on what to do if you are sick after your trip, see Getting Sick after Travel .

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• Vietnam defied the experts and sealed its border to keep Covid-19 out. It worked.

How the country has kept coronavirus deaths to just 35, and grew its economy in 2020.

by Julia Belluz

With reporting from Hanoi by Thuy Do and Giap Nguyen ; Photographs by Linh Pham for Vox

This story is one in our six-part series The Pandemic Playbook. Explore all the stories here .

Every January or February, Le The Linh and his wife pack their children into their car and drive 80 miles to visit family in Haiphong, a port city east of Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, for Lunar New Year. But this time, as they reached the last stretch of the Hanoi-Haiphong Highway, a police officer approached and pointed them toward a group of guards in face masks under a makeshift tent. It was one of 16 checkpoints erected around Haiphong to control travel into and out of the city ahead of the Tet Festival holiday.

They joined a lineup of other travelers, nervously waiting for their turn in the rain. When they reached the front, the officials asked for proof of their travel plans, residency, and Covid-19 status.

“Don’t worry!” Linh exclaimed tensely. He could show, with his identity card, that they lived in an area that had no coronavirus cases recently.

The family was among the lucky ones let through. Travelers from areas near Haiphong that had recently recorded Covid-19 cases got turned away; a group of young people on motorbikes who tried to circumvent the checkpoint were arrested ; still others chose not to travel at all, opting to meet family over FaceTime or Zalo (Vietnam’s answer to WhatsApp).

As the pandemic took hold last year, travel restrictions quickly proliferated — they were the second-most-common policy governments adopted to combat Covid-19. According to one review , never in recorded history has global travel been curbed in “such an extreme manner”: a reduction of approximately 65 percent in the first half of 2020. More than a year later, as countries experiment with vaccine passports , travel bubbles , and a new round of measures to keep virus variants at bay , a maze of confusing, ever-changing restrictions remains firmly in place.

But few countries have gone as far as Vietnam, a one-party communist state with a GDP per capita of $2,700 . The Haiphong checkpoints timed for Tet were the equivalent of closing off Los Angeles to Americans ahead of Thanksgiving — within a country that was already nearly hermetically sealed. Last March, the government canceled all inbound commercial flights for months on end, making it almost impossible to fly in, even for Vietnamese residents.

Today, flights are limited to select groups, like businesspeople or experts, from a few low-risk countries. Everybody who enters needs special government permission and must complete up to 21 days of state-monitored quarantine with PCR tests. (Positive cases are immediately isolated in hospitals, regardless of disease severity.)

This strict approach to travel, global health experts say, is directly connected to Vietnam’s seeming defeat of Covid-19. Thirty-five people have reportedly died in total, and a little more than 2,700 have been infected with the virus during three small waves that have all been quickly quashed. Even on the worst days of the pandemic, the country of 97 million has never recorded more than 110 new cases — a tiny fraction of the 68,000 daily case high in the United Kingdom, which has a population one-third smaller than Vietnam, or the record 300,000-plus cases per day only the US and India managed to tally.

Last year, Vietnam’s economy even grew 2.9 percent , defying economists’ predictions and beating China to become the top performer in Asia .

In this series, the Pandemic Playbook , Vox is exploring the Covid-19 strategies used by six nations. Vietnam’s travel restrictions — supported by other measures, including enforced quarantining and contact tracing — help explain the country’s apparent mastery over the virus. And while the political leverage of a single-party government might have helped Vietnam respond faster and more unilaterally than others, “I don’t think this is simply about totalitarianism versus Western democracies,” said Kelley Lee, a Simon Fraser University global health professor who has been studying the impact of travel restrictions .

That’s why Vietnam is now among a few countries upending the global health community’s “almost religious belief that travel restrictions are bad,” said Lawrence Gostin , a Georgetown University global health law professor who helped write the international law governing how countries should deal with outbreaks.

“I have now realized,” Gostin added, “that our belief about travel restrictions was just that — a belief. It was evidence-free.”

Covid-19 changed the thinking about travel restrictions in a pandemic

At a time when people still thought diseases originated with imbalances in the “four humors” and doctors routinely used treatments like bloodletting, governments tried to manage travel to prevent outbreaks. In 1377 , quarantine measures were introduced in Dubrovnik , on Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast, to keep out sailors potentially carrying the bubonic plague .

The law stipulated that anyone from “plague-infested areas shall not enter [Dubrovnik] or its district unless they spend a month on the islet of Mrkan ... for the purpose of disinfection.” For land travelers , the disinfection period lasted even longer — 40 days.

But in the age of mass travel and globalization, it seemed virtually impossible — counterproductive, even — for cities or countries to isolate themselves. The mantra in global health became “ diseases know no borders .” Just before the pandemic, 2019 was a record year for tourist arrivals. The travel and tourism sector had generated a tenth, or US $8.9 trillion , of global GDP. “It [was like] the cat’s out of the bag,” Gostin said.

Many of the measures countries tried in recent years, after the first SARS virus emerged in 2002 — including banning flights or visas for particular cities or countries, and screening for disease at airports — didn’t seem to deliver much protection.

Research on SARS , Ebola , and the seasonal flu found these targeted restrictions merely delayed infections and carried a slew of social and economic costs. They unfairly punished the economies of places that were unlucky enough to be plagued by disease, interfered with the global flows of people and goods, drove infections underground, and made it hard for aid workers and supplies to reach those who urgently needed them.

I knew these costs intimately. I grew up in Toronto, where a rare travel advisory imposed on the city by the World Health Organization in the wake of the first SARS outbreak cratered tourism to the entire province — so much so that the Rolling Stones eventually intervened with a charity concert (dubbed “SARSStock”). The measures also failed to avert outbreaks. According to a Canadian government report , putting arriving passengers through health assessments and thermal scanners didn’t root out a single case.

During the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola epidemic and early in the Covid-19 pandemic, I co-wrote popular stories detailing this evidence and arguing against the use of such restrictions. And I wasn’t alone.

Bill Gates pointed out that then-President Donald Trump’s approach to Covid-19 travel bans probably made the US epidemic worse. The WHO’s International Health Regulations , an international law governing 196 countries’ responses to outbreaks, says countries should “avoid unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade” and follow the WHO’s expert advice. With every global health emergency declared after SARS, the WHO has not recommended travel restrictions .

At the same time, speaking out against travel bans had become synonymous with opposing nationalism and wall-building, said Lee. “There were these progressive, human rights values that were upheld by not using travel measures.”

But it’s now clear that the well-meaning advice and previous research findings didn’t match up with the situation the world was facing in early 2020. The new virus was different — more contagious and harder to stop. SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted prior to the onset of symptoms, if they ever occur — while with SARS and Ebola, for example, people are only contagious when they are very ill or symptomatic.

The new coronavirus contagion inspired drastic measures. After China locked down Wuhan in January 2020, a move many called “ draconian ,” countries around the world scrambled and experimented with their own travel restrictions.

Only a few, though, did something that “seemed unfathomable” prior to the pandemic, said University of Hong Kong public health professor Karen Grépin: They completely closed their borders. It was an approach experts had no evidence for. “No one [had] modeled out a scenario in which borders would be shut,” she said, and stay shut.

Yet that’s essentially what happened in Vietnam — and in a few states or regions, mostly islands including Taiwan and New Zealand, that have virtually eliminated the virus.

The Pandemic Playbook Vox explores the successes — and setbacks — in six nations as they fought Covid-19. Our reporting is supported by a grant from the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund .

• South Korea’s Covid-19 success story started with failure
• Germany contained Covid-19. Politics brought it back.
• How the UK found the first effective Covid-19 treatment — and saved a million lives
• How Senegal stretched its health care system to stop Covid-19
• How the US won the economic recovery

Vietnam started building a “wall” to the world in January

Early last year, when the US and European countries still focused on keeping out travelers from places with known Covid-19 cases, Vietnam closed its borders to the world.

It was the culmination of months of escalating travel restrictions. On January 3, the same day China reported a mysterious cluster of viral pneumonia cases to the WHO, Vietnam’s Ministry of Health issued a directive to increase disease control measures on the border with China . By the end of January, Vietnam’s then-Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc banned all flights to and from Wuhan and other areas where the virus was spreading in China and shut off every transport link between the two countries, making it the first place in Southeast Asia to close out Chinese travelers.

By mid-March, Vietnam suspended visas for all foreigners and then stopped all commercial flights. Only diplomats, citizens, and other officials could get in or out on repatriation flights, and they needed authorization from the government to enter.

Limited air travel has now resumed with other low-risk neighbors — such as South Korea , Taiwan, and Japan — but only for Vietnamese people and foreign businesspeople and experts. And while Vietnamese nationals can cross land borders from Laos or Cambodia , everybody who does get into the country — by air, land, or sea — has to submit to PCR tests and wait out a mandatory 14- to 21-day quarantine period under state supervision in a military-run facility or designated hotel.

So where Western countries introduced travel restrictions late, targeted their measures at countries with confirmed Covid-19 cases (or variants now), made quarantine optional or didn’t enforce it, and allowed loopholes (like excluding certain groups from travel restrictions, or letting people arriving over land avoid quarantine), Vietnam walled itself in.While Western countries continue to roll measures back whenever case counts come down , Vietnam has kept its wall up — even during periods when the country recorded zero new coronavirus cases.

“This is the lesson about border measures that’s changed,” Grépin said. “The value of border restrictions goes up the fewer cases you have.”

The restrictions also appear to work best if they’re implemented when they most seem like overkill, said London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine epidemiologist Mark Jit . That is, before (or after) community transmission takes place, he added.

“The natural thing is to think, ‘When we have a big problem, there are many Covid cases, that’s the point when we need to start doing a lot of things.’ But for travel restrictions — these are the solution to stop the problem from happening in the first place,” Jit explained. “It seems obvious in retrospect, but it’s very paradoxical.”

Vietnam saw China’s epidemic as a threat right away

So why did Vietnam take this early and comprehensive approach when so many other countries didn’t? The short answer: The country’s fraught relationship and porous border with China — which put it at higher risk for outbreaks — may have been its savior.

“[The] two countries taking the quickest action are Taiwan and Vietnam — they shared the same reasons: geographical proximity to and distrust in China,” explained Nguyen Xuan Thanh, a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Group, which is composed of experts who counsel the government on economic development strategy and policy. (Vietnam may have had information that other countries didn’t early on: A cybersecurity firm, FireEye , has said that since at least January , Vietnamese hackers spied on the Chinese government to collect intelligence about Covid-19 — reports the government has denied.)

Whatever the reason, officials in Vietnam didn’t entertain the possibility that the coronavirus was just like the seasonal flu, nor did they consider herd immunity. When China locked down Wuhan last January and bought other countries time to react, Vietnam was one of only a handful of countries that used that time wisely.

“Outside of the Asia-Pacific region, most of the world did very little to prepare for the real possibility that this virus was about to spread globally,” Grépin said. In January, the Vietnamese government set up a national task force specialized in handling Covid-19, headed by the deputy prime minister, and defined a “double goal” of combating the virus and growing the economy.

The country’s officials and Communist Party made battling Covid-19 a patriotic act. “Fighting this epidemic is like fighting the enemy,” the prime minister said in a government meeting last January.

They transmitted health messages to the public using creative tactics , like texts to mobile phones or a viral pop song about hand-washing. They ramped up testing (starting in January 2020) and shortly thereafter began checking even asymptomatic people for the virus. By the end of last year, Vietnam was processing 1,000 tests per Covid-19 case , compared to 12.8 in the US or 21.7 in the UK.

Contact tracing became so widespread that the population now speaks the language of epidemiologists: It’s not unusual to hear Vietnamese people refer to the “F1” through “F5” system — how contact tracers denote a person’s proximity to an “F0,” or index case. (And, yes, where Western governments largely abandoned contact tracing or didn’t even seriously attempt it, Vietnam continues to ferret out potential cases by testing all F1s — a patient zero’s immediate contacts — and quarantining them in a state facility, while also asking F2s to quarantine at home.)

When a single person tests positive, it can trigger a targeted lockdown , “isolating a large area when the fire is big, isolating a small area when the fire is small,” Mai Tien Dung, the chair of the Office of the Government, said.

In practice, this meant that last February, just as Lunar New Year travel and Vietnam’s third wave was picking up, a Hanoi apartment block, where more than 1,000 people live, closed down one evening after a woman tested positive for the virus. The entrances were barricaded and guarded by police as hundreds of residents spilled out, masked and social distancing, waiting for a free Covid-19 test.

Only those who tested negative were allowed to leave, and results took at least six hours to come in — a fact that frustrated those who weren’t prepared to spend the night, like gym staff members. By the next morning, everyone who had been tested got a negative result, and the barricades were removed — but everybody living on the two floors around the index patient was asked to quarantine for two weeks.

“Politicians make decisions based on the pressure from the society and inner political system. Vietnam had no such pressure.”

Vietnam also bet that the early overreaction, including closing down international borders, might save the domestic economy and prevent the health system from becoming overwhelmed, Thanh said. Just before SARS-CoV-2 started spreading in China, Vietnam ranked 73 out of 195 countries on epidemic response and mitigation, according to the Global Health Security Index from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. (The US, meanwhile, ranked No. 2 after the UK; the top 10 included the Netherlands and Brazil.)

Vietnam had another vulnerability to contend with. “The reality [is] that Vietnam does not have enough budget to sacrifice the economy and support businesses and individuals who had to cease operation,” Thanh said.

More than a year later, Vietnam’s success with keeping case counts, hospitalizations, and deaths low laid bare the arrogance and faulty assumptions that went into determining which countries would win or lose in their battles with the virus. With the exception of short-lived, targeted lockdowns, life in Vietnam today largely resembles the Before Times in a way many Westerners can only envy. People go to bars, share drinks with friends, and enjoy live music. Restaurants and cafes are open. Children attend school and see their grandparents in person.

The population never experienced the disorientation, economic pain, and mental health toll of rolling national lockdowns. Hospitals never buckled under the strain of masses of coronavirus patients. Kids didn’t miss a year of school. (There was a brief nationwide social distancing order last April when all schools were shut for three weeks.)

Vietnam is also one of a handful of countries whose economies grew in 2020 — the same year the country introduced three trade deals and saw per capita income rise. “At the beginning of the crisis, if you asked an economist what would happen here, most of us were pessimistic because of the [cutting off of] connections to the rest of the world,” said Jacques Morisset, the World Bank’s lead economist for Vietnam.

But because the virus was quickly contained internally, the domestic economy rebounded, just as Thanh and his colleagues had hoped. Manufacturing continued, and exports grew by 6.5 percent — not far off from the usual export turnover increase of 8 percent, according to Thanh.

That growth more than made up for losses in the shrinking tourism and transport sectors. The successes also helped foster public support for the anti-virus measures. Whenever the tourism or travel industries lobbied for open borders, the economic pressure didn’t crack the borders open. According to a survey released in December by the UN Development Program and the Mekong Development Research Institute, 89 percent of Vietnamese respondents said they supported the government’s approach — higher than the global average of 67 percent.

“Politicians make decisions based on the pressure from the society and inner political system,” Thanh said. “Vietnam had no such pressure. Vietnamese people supported the government to continue having strict measures.”

Vietnam’s state security apparatus bolstered its public health response

In a one-party system like Vietnam’s, there are few avenues to voice opposition. This political context has arguably strengthened certain anti-virus measures, like the country’s extensive contact tracing program. The Communist Party has for decades employed “surveillance, physical monitoring, and censorship to manage the population,” Foreign Policy reported in May last year . These “tools of Communist Party control ... have now been repurposed in the service of health protection.”

Local officials and busybody neighbors also exert social pressure on others to conform, said Carl Thayer , a Southeast Asia specialist and emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales. “Vietnam has block wardens, village wardens, household registration, and inquisitive locals that intrude on people’s lives. They have a society where people report people.”

The government can and does share details with the public about positive cases (including the age, gender, and neighborhood where the person lives, as well as a flight number for travelers), sometimes leaking additional information for use as cautionary tales.

Perhaps the most infamous example: Vietnam’s case number 17 , a socialite who traveled to Italy without disclosing it at the border and faced severe public shaming. Her Covid-19 experience was the subject of government press conferences, and social media users tracked her down. Her story scared people who didn’t want to be responsible for others’ infections, said Hanoi-based American health economist Sarah Bales. “Everybody knows her,” she said. “She was notorious, and people hated her.”

This heavy-handedness would not be tolerated in many Western countries, where concerns about personal freedom and privacy have often trumped public health throughout the pandemic, Thayer said. The Foreign Policy authors also pointed out that the country’s human rights violations have repeatedly been overlooked in examinations of Vietnam’s Covid-19 response: “While the international community has criticized Vietnam’s security apparatus in the past for violating its citizens’ rights, the country has received near-unanimous praise for its successful handling of the current pandemic. But the tools used are the same.”

Yet to reduce Vietnam’s Covid-19 success to its system of authoritarian governance is a mistake, Lee said, pointing out that democracies, like South Korea, Taiwan, and New Zealand, have employed similar tactics as Vietnam. And analysts have repeatedly struggled to link a country’s political system to its Covid-19 success .

Vietnam’s is “a very scientific approach and has merit on its own no matter which regime chooses to apply these types of measures,” said Bales, who has lived and worked in Vietnam since 1992. “They did extensive contact tracing. ... They did massive testing. They closed down the provinces so if there was transmission, it would stay local. Most people are living a normal life, and the few people who have been exposed or infected have to bear the brunt of quarantine, testing, and isolation.”

Watching the pandemic unfold in the US and Europe, Bales was among several Vietnam-based Westerners who told Vox they believe the privacy and personal liberty costs during the pandemic were worth the benefits of living a relatively free life.

“You don’t have to worry and be afraid like you do in the West — where every time you go out, it must be stressful [wondering] about if you’re exposed, and if you’re exposed, will you have long Covid or die,” Bales said. “On a day-to-day basis, I don’t worry.”

When Vietnam’s wall comes down

One morning in early March, a taxicab pulled up to the international terminal at Hanoi’s Noi Bai airport . The last time the driver took someone there was half a year ago, he said, when a Vietnamese customer wanted to fly to Taiwan for work. Today, though, a repatriation flight had just landed — one of 16 arriving in Vietnam so far this year.

Inside, the airport is a skeleton of its former self. There are no crowds waiting to greet friends and family. Cafes and restaurants are closed, and the terminal halls are quiet and dark. A group of the newly arrived passengers waiting at the luggage conveyer belt look distinctly like they’ve come from a biosafety hazard lab: wearing blue full-body protection suits and masks, provided by Vietnam Airlines staff when they boarded their flight in Paris.

The only loud noise echoing across the terminal is a voice broadcasting instructions for what the passengers need to do next: Everybody will be transported to state-supervised quarantine facilities. One by one, their names and year of birth are called out before they walk to buses to be ferried off. When they arrive, they’ll be tested for Covid-19 — and, if positive, forwarded directly to the hospital for isolation and treatment.

“We will try our best to organize so that families, parents, and children can stay together,” the voice on the speaker says, “but with friends, we may not be able to do so. We are sorry for that.”

This scene feels unimaginable in Western cities like New York or Paris — but so did ubiquitous mask-wearing and lockdowns over a year ago. With travel set to boom as the pandemic eases, and the next outbreaks on the horizon, I wondered what the rest of the world should take away from Vietnam.

Lee — and the other global health researchers I spoke to — advised caution. This pandemic showed travel restrictions can be helpful, but we should not make the same mistake we did in the past and assume what worked for the coronavirus will work for other health threats. “We don’t want countries to automatically control borders whenever a cluster of atypical pneumonia occurs,” Lee said. “Not all outbreaks require borders to be closed.”

Shutting borders comes with costs — all the people who lost travel and tourism jobs in Vietnam over the past year, or those who have been stranded far from home. Because of the very limited access to repatriation flights , thousands are waiting for their applications to get approved, and a black market for repatriation flight access sprang up. The wealthy agree to pay as much as $10,000 US for seats, while some have been scammed .

“Even if we conclude that travel restrictions and trade restrictions and migration restrictions — under certain targeted circumstances — can be an effective part of the package,” Gostin said, “we still have to take into account the fact that by implementing [them], you’re causing harms in other regards.”

Grépin also warned that the border closures countries like Vietnam put in place were “very extreme,” and pointed out that less intensive measures might prevent cases and carry fewer costs. Places like South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong, for example, have shown that “if you quarantine incoming travelers you can limit public health risk without border closure,” she said. But she also noted the approach isn’t foolproof. Hong Kong, for example, is currently struggling with the virus because of its travel links with India: A single April 4 flight from New Delhi has led to more than 50 Covid-19 cases .

This raises another challenge: Travel restrictions are difficult to calibrate correctly, said Steven Hoffman , a global health professor and the director of York University’s Global Strategy Lab. “If we are going to make use of [total border closures,] we need to [acknowledge] the fact that it might be implemented for events that don’t go pandemic,” he said. “And there’s something like 200 events every year that could go pandemic.”

For now, as Vietnam weighs the benefits of Covid-19 vaccine passports and how to resume international travel , one thing is certain: The walls the country has built up will come down. People will hop on trains, planes, and buses, bringing their germs with them. The world will get smaller again, and proximity will be “more determined on the basis of the quantity of travel connections than kilometers,” Hoffman added.

Vietnam’s early, quick response to Covid-19 was inspired, in part, by the country’s shared border with China. But what other countries need to learn is that, in a globalized world, they share borders with China, too.

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Detailed entry requirements for international visitors to vietnam.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has issued Document No. 829/PA-BVHTTDL on its plan to reopen the tourism sector in the new normal.

Regulations on the reception of international visitors to Vietnam under the document are now much easier than previous proposals submitted by relevant agencies. * To enter Vietnam, international visitors need to meet the following conditions: - To be a citizen from the 13 following states who will be entitled to 15-day visa exemption regardless of passport types and entry purposes, provided they meet all the conditions stipulated by Vietnamese law: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the UK, Russia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Belarus. This rule is valid from March 15, 2022 through March 14, 2025. - To be foreign nationals, overseas Vietnamese, or relatives who hold sufficient legal papers as regulated (including valid permanent residence cards, temporary residence cards, visas, visa waivers). They do not need to re-apply for personal verification or visa issuance/visa waivers, or apply for entry permission by ministries, sectors, or localities. * Testing and vaccination requirements: - International visitors to Vietnam (except for children under 2) need to test negative for SARS-CoV-2 prior to their departure by air within 72 hours if using the RT/PCR/RT-LAMP test method, or within 24 hours if using the rapid antigen test method as verified by competent authorities of the countries conducting the tests. - Those who enter Vietnam by road, railway, or sea can take a test before their departure like air passengers if their travel duration is short. Meanwhile, they need to take a test at ports of entry if their travel duration is long. - A test is required if an international visitor shows COVID-19 symptoms. If the test result is positive, he/she must comply with the Ministry of Health’s guidance. - The rule that international arrivals by air have to undergo another test when entering Vietnam, as well as quarantine requirements, is no longer in place. International visitors can engage in tourism activities as soon as they meet these conditions.

* Entry procedures: - All international arrivals have to make health declarations at tokhaiyte.vn prior to leaving. - Installing the PC-COVID application. * Quarantine requirements: Within 10 days since their entry, international visitors have to self-monitor their health. In case of showing suspected symptoms (fever; cough; sore throat; runny nose, nasal congestion; aches or pains, tiredness, cold; loss of taste or smell; headache; diarrhea; shortage of breath; respiratory infection), they have to immediately report to their nearest healthcare establishment to receive timely guidance and management while practicing disease prevention measures (frequently wearing face masks, cleaning hands with sanitiser). * Other information: - International visitors must have health insurance or travel insurance with coverage of at least US$10,000 for COVID-19 treatment. - International visitors must pay testing, health quarantine, check-up, and treatment expenses, and others (if any) by themselves. - If wishing to apply for or having problems with seeking the Vietnam entry permit, foreign nationals and Vietnamese holding foreign passports can liaise via the following contacts: + Email: [email protected] + Email: [email protected] for guiding and handling foreigners’ entry, exist, and residence procedures. + Telephone numbers: (+84) 24 38 26 01 14/ 24 38 26 40 26 (Hanoi)/ (+84) 28 39 20 03 65 (Ho Chi Minh City). + For more information about entry permit application procedures, visit the website: https://xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn ./.

Foreigners, overseas Vietnamese to benefit from favourable entry procedures

Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh has given in-principle approval that favourable entry procedures will be created for foreigners, and overseas Vietnamese and their relatives.

Báo điện tử VOV

Vietnam Travel Restrictions

Traveler's COVID-19 vaccination status

Traveling from the United States to Vietnam

Open for vaccinated visitors

COVID-19 testing

Not required

Not required for vaccinated visitors

Restaurants

Not required in public spaces and public transportation.

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Can I travel to Vietnam from the United States?

Most visitors from the United States, regardless of vaccination status, can enter Vietnam.

Can I travel to Vietnam if I am vaccinated?

Fully vaccinated visitors from the United States can enter Vietnam without restrictions.

Can I travel to Vietnam without being vaccinated?

Unvaccinated visitors from the United States can enter Vietnam without restrictions.

Do I need a COVID test to enter Vietnam?

Visitors from the United States are not required to present a negative COVID-19 PCR test or antigen result upon entering Vietnam.

Can I travel to Vietnam without quarantine?

Travelers from the United States are not required to quarantine.

Do I need to wear a mask in Vietnam?

Mask usage in Vietnam is not required in public spaces and public transportation.

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Restaurants in Vietnam are open. Bars in Vietnam are .

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Vietnam Lifts Quarantine, Opens Borders to the World

All travelers will be required to arrive with proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR or LAMP test taken within 72 hours of their departure or a negative rapid antigen test taken within 24 hours of their departure.

Vietnam has lifted all quarantine measures for international travelers and reopened its borders this week, becoming the latest destination to ease pandemic-related rules.

The country eliminated quarantine measures on Wednesday, a day after reopening its borders to foreign tourism, according to the Viet Nam Government Portal .

All travelers will be required to arrive with proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR or LAMP test taken within 72 hours of their departure or a negative rapid antigen test taken within 24 hours of their departure. Travelers must also make a health declaration before arriving, download a coronavirus-related app, monitor their own health for 10 days, and obtain insurance that covers at least $10,000 in expenses.

Children under 2 years old are exempt from pre-arrival testing requirements.

"In order to carry out the safe and effective opening of tourism, the [Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism] has issued guidance documents and asked localities to urgently prepare for the reopening of tourism, which focus on ensuring safety, implementing tourism stimulation programmes, developing products, improving service quality, upholding promotion activities, supplementing human resources and strengthening inspection and examination," the ministry wrote in a statement on Thursday.

While government officials previously indicated there would be a vaccine requirement to enter the country, neither the government's news site nor the tourism ministry have mentioned one.

Vietnam fully opened its borders to international tourism on Tuesday, three months earlier than the country initially planned . Travelers from the United States will still need to apply for a visa.

Vietnam is currently seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases and is reporting an average of about 254,000 new infections each day, according to Reuters . But the country has vaccinated more than 80% of its population, according to Johns Hopkins' Coronavirus Resource Center .

Still, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has placed Vietnam under its highest travel warning level, telling Americans to "avoid" going there due to "very high" levels of coronavirus transmission.

Vietnam is the latest country to welcome visitors following years of strict border restrictions. Last month, Australia began welcoming international tourists . And next month, South Korea plans to welcome visitors followed by New Zealand , which plans to reopen its borders to the world in May.

Alison Fox is a contributing writer for Travel + Leisure. When she's not in New York City, she likes to spend her time at the beach or exploring new destinations and hopes to visit every country in the world. Follow her adventures on Instagram .

Related Articles

Reimagining tourism: How Vietnam can accelerate travel recovery

This article is part of the ongoing Future of Vietnam series, which explores key topics that will shape the country’s future growth. Separate articles discuss Vietnam's post-COVID-19 economic recovery , its longer-term growth aspirations  and ways for ecosystem players to win in Vietnam .

Download the Vietnamese translation  (PDF – 2.4MB).

For most players in the travel industry , the idea of vacationers lounging on a beach thousands of miles from home or sailing the high seas seems like a distant memory. Globally, countries experienced a decline of 35 to 48 percent in tourism expenditures last year compared with 2019 . Vietnam, with its ten-month international border closure, has not been exempted.

Tourism contributes a significant share to Vietnam’s GDP, and the economy has relied on domestic travel to buoy the sector. Local tourism resumed shortly after the country ended its relatively brief lockdown—just in time for 2020’s summer holiday season. Our analysis shows that demand for domestic travel in Vietnam will continue to grow and will recover relatively fast because of growing domestic spending: vacationers who cannot yet travel abroad are redirecting their money locally, at a higher level than in 2019.

As Vietnam’s travel sector continues to evolve and as prospects of international travel become increasingly feasible with vaccination rollouts, travel and tourism players have to adapt to survive. This article gives an overview of the state of Vietnam’s tourism sector, looks ahead at how the industry is likely to recover, and maps out a way forward for the country’s travel and tourism companies.

The state of travel in Vietnam today: Staying afloat

Vietnam’s tourism sector relies heavily on international travel, which plunged last year. International flights dropped 80 percent in October 2020 from the same time period a year earlier (Exhibit 1). Hotels, in turn, filled only 30 percent of their rooms.

The sharp drop in foreign travelers has had an outsize impact on tourism expenditures—and Vietnam’s overall economy—because they spend significantly more than their local counterparts. In 2019, a year in which the tourism industry accounted for 12 percent of the country’s GDP, 1 “Total revenue from tourists in the period of 2008–2019,” Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, May 29, 2020, vietnamtourism.gov.vn. international travelers made up only 17 percent of overall tourists in Vietnam, yet accounted for more than half of all tourism spending—averaging $673 per traveler compared with $61 spent on average by domestic travelers (Exhibit 2). The tourism sector created 660,000 jobs between 2014 and 2019, 2 Global Economic Impact & Trends 2020 , World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), June 2020, wttc.org. and this sharp expenditure dive has also stunted the country’s food and beverage and retail industries.

As a return to pre-COVID-19 levels of international tourism may be far off, the travel sector’s short-term revival could depend on local tourism. In 2019, Vietnamese tourists spent $15.5 billion, of which $5.9 billion flowed overseas. The majority of tourists are unable to leave the country, so they are looking domestically to scratch their travel itch. Travel companies should therefore rise to the occasion and capture value from this opportunity.

Looking ahead: Vietnam’s tourism industry can recover by 2024 if it implements a zero-case-first approach

Even with favorable tailwinds driven by domestic tourism, Vietnam will be dependent on international markets, which represent around $12 billion in spending. The majority of Vietnam’s international tourists come from Asian countries, with those from China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan accounting for around 80 percent of Vietnam’s foreign tourism spending. Vietnam’s strong economic ties with these countries could lead to a relatively fast tourism-industry recovery compared with other key tourist destinations in Europe and North America (Exhibit 3).

To make the most of these ties, Vietnam has been pursuing a zero-case-first strategy  since the start of the pandemic. This strategy is associated with markets in which COVID-19 transmission rates are low and—as a result—traveler confidence, at least on a domestic level, is relatively high.

By implementing the zero-case-first approach and taking into account Vietnam’s currently resilient local economy and proactive government campaigns, Vietnam’s tourism sector could recover to precrisis levels in 2024 (Exhibit 4).

Under this scenario, three paradigms are changing the way travel companies plan for Vietnam’s recovery:

• Shifts in tourism behavior could result in high-end domestic trips. With borders remaining closed for outbound travel, an increase in domestic luxury trips could occur as travelers reallocate their budgets. Of course, as noted above, the spending power of domestic tourists is weaker than that of foreign tourists, so this type of travel cannot completely fill the gap created by the lack of international travelers.
• Price cuts could be used to stimulate demand but aren’t sustainable for the long term. Many travel companies offered discounts in the immediate aftermath of the crisis in order to compete for business and stimulate demand. This may result in price dilution, especially for hotels across the country, and thus may not be a sustainable strategy for the long term.
• International travel bubbles have to be explored with caution. Currently, Vietnam has strict travel restrictions in place and allows only a select number of weekly international flights for travel by experts and diplomats, who are subject to mandatory quarantine on arrival. Vietnam needs to protect the status quo of having near-zero rates of COVID-19 cases and cannot risk opening its borders freely until herd immunity is reached, most likely through mass vaccinations. Thus, it could take some time before inbound foreign tourism returns at scale. In the meantime, there might be some opportunity to pursue more gradual and less risky measures. For instance, there have been discussions about establishing travel bubbles to allow travel between other countries with zero or near-zero transmissions, such as Australia, China, and Singapore. Travel companies should be prepared for two scenarios: one in which travel bubbles open up for inflows of international tourists, and the other in which domestic tourism remains the main driver of value.

Six actions to jump-start Vietnam’s tourism recovery

As travel companies reimagine their pathways to recovery, it is important to address the risks and anxieties related to COVID-19, while also solving for the pain points and trends that existed before the crisis. Below are six steps that Vietnam, and other countries operating in a zero-case-first market approach, can take as they embark on this road to recovery.

Focus on domestic travelers

Local demand can be revitalized by focusing on emerging destinations with the joint cooperation of local governments, online travel agencies, attractions, hotels, and airlines. Outdoor tourism that involves sunshine, beaches, mountains, and nature were among the top choices for Vietnamese travelers after the lockdown was lifted in mid-May last year, and airports at the two big travel hubs of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi were busy. To further tap into the domestic opportunity, operators will have to focus on affordability while striving to maintain high-quality products and experience.

Consider new pricing models to rebuild demand

Rebuilding demand and propelling volume, through discounts and presales, are key tactics during the early stages of recovery, especially for high-end operators that will not be able to tap into international demand for some time. However, the crisis has also forced operators to set aside their existing commercial playbooks. Historical booking patterns and trends normally used as key reference points for price optimization and yield management may no longer be as relevant. In this context of depleted demand, the paradox is that while price cuts are necessary, they could also be dangerous. In this light, companies can also explore opportunities to bundle products—which can offer upselling and cross-selling opportunities—as well as diversify their revenue stream and enhance premium product and pricing.

Five-star hotels in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, for example, can provide full “staycation” packages for families, complete with home pickup by luxury car, a suite, and discounts on food and drinks. Tourism companies and hotels could work together to provide end-to-end travel packages that include flights, train tickets, limousine and bus services, and accommodations. Other companies could capitalize on booming demand for luxury and outdoor activities, such as yacht tours or farm stays.

As demand grows and confidence increases, operators will naturally be inclined to revert to a more dynamic pricing model, based on indicators such as hotel occupancy and domestic-air-travel passenger numbers—and how they grow toward achieving prepandemic levels. That will then give companies an opportunity to refine optimal pricing mechanisms, especially around key domestic holidays such as Tet (the Vietnamese New Year). This is not something that all countries are getting right. Many hotels in Germany , for example, missed pricing or revenue-management opportunities when demand for summer travel reemerged last year.

In the future, dynamic pricing models and the revenue-management function will need to be revisited, based on three new axioms: traveler segments will not be the same for a long period of time and will be a stronger and more diverse domestic mix; demand elasticities will be different, with health concerns playing a more influential role in decision making; and demand will remain very volatile, as observed in Vietnam during the Tet holiday this year, when a small spike in COVID-19 cases led to a big drop in bookings and travel demand throughout the country.

The time for digital (really) is now

Even before the pandemic, consumer reliance on digital for travel-related bookings had been growing. In 2018, online travel activity made up 19 percent of the total tours and activity market size. The pandemic has made the adoption of mobile and digital tools even more essential. Strategic collaborations—such as online travel agencies providing ticket-booking services via instant messaging and social-media platforms—could offer an opportunity for increased market penetration.

At the same time, travel companies should revamp their online touchpoints and experiences to improve customer experience. This is already starting to happen: the website of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has virtual tours for its most popular destinations, and some tour guides have organized real-time online tours for international customers. In addition, a commercial titled, “Why not Vietnam” aired on CNN in October 2020 to drive international traffic to the website, and on the domestic level, a reality show with the same name offered up weekly online travel photo contests to engage viewers.

Furthermore, companies could also think about placing digital tools in new places within the customer journey. They must recognize that factors promoting customer loyalty may have changed; near-term uncertainty may mean, for example, that the ability to cancel a reservation matters more than brand choice or price. Taking this into account, companies could empower customers to build their own itineraries using connected digital tools that make it easier for them to modify or cancel their plans. Solutions and policies that provide choice and control will help build the long-term trust and confidence necessary to get travelers back on the road and in the air.

Lay the groundwork for inbound demand

To capture early outbound demand, travel players could benefit from tracking the development of travel bubbles. This is especially relevant for Vietnam, as the majority of tourists to Vietnam are from nearby regions with strong economic ties and relatively low transmission rates. As stated earlier in this article, our analysis finds that nearby countries such as China, Malaysia, and Thailand could provide inbound expenditure growth of at least the CAGR between 2020 and 2025 (Exhibit 3).

In this context, travel companies will need to be flexible and nimble to capture early international-travel demand—and should be prepared to implement strict health and safety protocols that fulfill the stipulations of both domestic and destination security policies. That said, betting on travel bubbles cannot in itself be a strategy in the short term, as international arrivals are expected to remain low in 2021, and foreign demand will not return to 2019 levels before 2025.

Reinvent the traveler’s experience beyond accommodation—and ‘redistribute’ tourism investments toward unconventional and more diverse destinations

Globally, travelers are personalizing their trips through destination adventures. Tourism spending is shifting away from accommodation to activities—a trend that holds true for Vietnam. According to a report released by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, Vietnamese travelers have allocated smaller budgets for accommodation in the past few years, accounting for approximately 15 percent of travel expenditures in 2019, down from 23 percent in 2011.

Instead of spending on luxury accommodations, travelers are saving money for destination experiences. Many tourists are booking activities before they travel, which suggests the in-destination experience has a bigger impact in the overall tourist decision-making process. Many adventure activities, such as cave discovery, highland hiking, isolated island stays, water sports, and food festivals have become the main reason for travelers to visit a destination in the first place.

In Vietnam, examples of efforts aimed at developing a distinct experience—rather than specific infrastructures—have emerged recently, such as the development of Ho Chi Minh City’s “night economy,” and diversified marketing from the Binh Duong province to spotlight its festivals as main attractions. VNAT is also participating in this effort, specifically making farm stays in mountainous areas an axis for the development of more indigenous experiences. Meanwhile, other regions are also marketing unique experiences: Dalat is promoting its hiking and camping attractions, Mui Ne its golf and water sports, and Ninh Binh and Phong Nha-Ke Bang their nature activities.

Local operators, who often lag behind big travel companies in terms of resources but are more agile in organizing personalized activities, can leverage increasingly popular online players to connect directly with customers and provide these options. International online travel agencies such as TripAdvisor, as well as closer-to-home players such as Traveloka  and Triip.me, have been building dedicated “experience” platforms to inspire users and allow them to choose the most suitable tours by providing a range of attractive options for destination adventures. Tourism companies could shift their efforts away from building resorts and selling sightseeing tickets to designing exceptional activities and leverage these platforms to take advantage of travel-experience trends.

Reimagine government’s role in tourism

In most countries, reinventing the tourism industry will involve industry professionals working in concert with industry groups and governments . Vietnamese tourism administrators have an exciting opportunity to reimagine their roles and lead the sector through recovery and beyond—first, by boosting domestic demand to make up for lost income from international travelers, and second, by promoting Vietnam’s image as a country that has managed the pandemic fairly well. To do this, three things should occur:

• In the short term, government and industry associations need to ensure the survival of operators. The government can experiment with new and sustainable financing options such as hotel revenue pooling, in which a subset of hotels operating at higher occupancy rates share revenue with others. This would allow hotels to optimize variable costs and reduce the need for government stimulus plans.
• In the midterm, government-backed digital and analytic transformation is necessary, especially to level the playing field for small and medium-sized enterprises, which made up more than 50 percent of travel suppliers in 2018. Encouraging and helping local operators adjust to the demand for online travel services is critical to help them stay competitive. Government can play a vital role as a matchmaker, connecting suppliers to distributors and intermediaries to create packages attractive to a specific segment of tourists, and then use tourist engagement to provide further analytical insights to travel intermediaries. This ability allows online travel agents to diversify their offerings by providing more experiences off the beaten track. The Singapore Tourism Analytics Network (STAN) and the Tourism Exchange Australia (TXA) platforms are examples of how this mechanism can work at scale.
• Finally, Vietnam has a solid opportunity to boost its stature as an adventure destination. Governments and industry associations can leverage the overall momentum of the country, as well as the expected return of international travel, to boost demand. Our analysis finds that in the Asia–Pacific region, adventure remains the leading travel trend searched by travelers, so Vietnam is well positioned to leverage this trend. Similarly, investments are also expected to shift away from mega development projects, such as Phu Quoc and Nha Trang, toward small- and medium-scale projects and cities that offer specialized offerings like sports tourism, medical tourism, and even agricultural tourism.

Travel players in Vietnam can seek to accelerate the industry’s recovery by capturing emerging growth opportunities domestically as they gradually rebuild international travelers’ confidence. Our six steps should set the stakeholders in Vietnam’s travel industry in the right direction and help them thrive in the tourism economy of the future .

Margaux Constantin is a partner in McKinsey’s Dubai office; Matthieu Francois is an associate partner in the Ho Chi Minh City office, where Thao Le is a consultant.

The authors wish to thank Celine Birkl, Bruce Delteil, and Alex Le for their contributions to the article.

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Post-COVID recovery: Viet Nam on the right track but more rigorous changes needed

Joseph E. Stiglitz, Professor of Columbia University, and a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences at at the International Conference “Green and Inclusive Economic Rebound: Lessons from International Experience”

As published in  Viet Nam News on 26 February 2022

HÀ  NỘI — Việt Nam has been on the right track towards the goals of cutting carbon emissions and phasing out coal mine plants but will need more vigorous financial and institutional changes to deliver a green, sustainable and inclusive recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

International experts, think tanks and government officials discussed solutions at a high-level conference hosted both online and in-person by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) yesterday in Hà Nội.

The conference was held as Việt Nam stands at a critical juncture, seeking to rebound from COVID-19, which has dampened the economic growth, and meet the commitments of carbon neutrality and transition to clean energy at COP26.

In his opening remarks, Deputy Prime Minister Phạm Bình Minh said in the backdrop of unprecedented impacts caused by the pandemic, countries will have the opportunity to review issues and implement policy and measures to safely adapt to the pandemic, transition to the new growth models, pursue a green and circular economy, among others, to achieve more inclusive and sustainable recovery.

“The issue for the Vietnamese Government in the post-pandemic era is not simply pursuing recovery but how to pursue recovery,” he said.

“With bold commitments made at COP26, the Vietnamese Government has had a clear answer, which is to pursue green and inclusive rebound.”

He added that Việt Nam will actively partake in global trends such as reopening, socio-economic development, green transition and digital transformation.

The deputy prime minister said it will be an extensive transition that requires Việt Nam to focus on improving its institutions and policies and enhancing the efficiency and competitiveness of the economy.

“The transition also poses a challenge in tackling social impacts, as workers have not been equipped with a know-how and a capacity to participate in a new working market with higher demands and requirements,” he said, noting that the lack of finance, technology and capacity is also a problem that needs to be addressed.

Joseph E. Stiglitz, Professor of Columbia University, and a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, said addressing climate change issues and the transition to the green economy will bring job opportunities and long-term sustainable growth for countries and Việt Nam needs to act now to be able to meet its commitments of carbon neutrality by 2050.

“I see addressing climate change as providing opportunities for growth and creating more dynamics in the economy. Climate change has potential for promoting growth and creating jobs,” he said.

 “Việt Nam is one of the few developing countries that has been stepping up and made commitments in carbon neutrality and elimination of coals, fuels.”

“Việt Nam’s approach is the right one. It’s better to be in the advanced guard in the transition to a green economy.

“The economy of the future is going to be the green economy. By moving more quickly toward that green economy, Việt Nam is taking an important step in advancing its own interest and rapid and sustainable growth.”

“The world and every country are facing multiple crises, including the health, climate, inequality crisis. For developing countries, this is a special challenge as this comes on top of the imperative close the gap they have in standards of living with countries,” Prof. Stiglitz said.

The professor said Việt Nam should grab the opportunity to make a sustainable and inclusive economy that is attractive to investment, which is now driven by geopolitics.

“This is the special moment of opportunity for Việt Nam as we are confronting a changing geopolitical arena.

“Việt Nam has the opportunity to create a more dynamic sustainable inclusive society and economy that has competitive advantages that will attract investment from all over the world and put it in good stead for the decades to come,” he said. 

Prof. Stiglitz said the country must act now to realise its goals set at COP26.

“If Việt Nam is going to meet its commitments to carbon neutrality by 2050, it has to begin now and has to make sure the investments that are undertaken today will be consistent with that message of carbon neutrality by 2050.”

Besides regulatory framework, finance, and technology, the professor also emphasised the need to work on an education system “appropriately designed” to teach learners how to learn and become more adaptable to changes, as a green economy will create new jobs.

“As we move to the green economy, there will be large changes, mostly positive. It will create lots of jobs in sectors like service, R&D, knowledge economy and innovation economy.”

We want is resilient workers who can go from jobs that are going to be lost to new jobs that will be created, he said.

“The key is education, an education system that is appropriately designed to teach them how to learn, to create a learning society so they continue to learn in the rest of their life,” Prof. Stiglitz said.

UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said a green and inclusive rebound is possible if we transcend the logic of trade-offs of economy versus environment and focus instead on the synergies from economic development that prioritises sustainability and inclusivity.  

Steiner highlighted six lessons from UNDP’s global efforts to support countries in driving a green circular economic rebound.

They include innovative long-term financing, just climate transition, bridging the digital divide, gender equality, triple-a governance (anticipatory, agile, and adaptive), and shock-resilient social protection.

“Việt Nam continues to be a pioneer in designing and implementing solutions to pressing development challenges such as stubborn pockets of poverty, economic and social inequalities, and limited digital and energy access,” said Steiner.

The one-day conference, which brought in eminent international and national thought leaders and policymakers, had three sessions focusing on green recovery and resilience; trade, investment and innovation for a sustainable rebound; and strengthening the role of government in accelerating a green and inclusive rebound. — VNS

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• How Vietnam overcame a pandemic

All photography by Christian Berg

For Vietnam, resilience comes naturally. When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, the Vietnamese knew that by working together they could weather the crisis. Through two waves of the pandemic, Vietnamese followed the directions of the government and health officials, making the safety of all the country’s first priority. Because of this, the virus was quickly contained, and normal routines returned after only a few weeks of social distancing. Read on to find out more about how Vietnam successfully handled the virus, and what makes the country one of the safest places to visit when borders open again.

Vietnam has faced several health crises in recent years. When COVID-19 emerged, Vietnam was particularly vulnerable because of its long border with China and limited healthcare resources. The government took decisive action early on to prevent a full-blown outbreak. A week after the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in the country, the Prime Minister declared an epidemic in the country. A National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention was formed to coordinate and direct the government’s strategy in a unified way. 

The government relied on contact tracing, widespread testing and targeted lockdowns to prevent the virus from spreading in local communities. Tracing and testing was based on the risk of infection, rather than symptoms. This kept many asymptotic patients from transmitting the virus to others. Vietnam decided early to close its borders to visitors, suspend large gatherings, and require quarantine for all overseas arrivals. Once there were no new risks from outside, Vietnam focussed its full attention on stamping out the virus within its borders.

Preparedness and supplies

Even before the first COVID-19 cases arrived in Vietnam on January 23, the Ministry of Health began preparing for a possible outbreak. Military barracks were transformed into quarantine camps and field hospitals with thousands of beds made ready. Vietnam set up 45 quick response teams nationwide, and 31 private hospitals organized their own task forces. Testing facilities and health hotlines were quickly opened to the public. Today Vietnam has more than 200 testing centres able to gather up to 46,000 samples a day. 

On February 1, the government promised a constant stream of supplies would be available to the public. The Ministry of Health boosted mask production, and all stores in Vietnam were required to carry masks and hand sanitizers for sale. The government decided to cover medical expenses for anyone who caught the virus, and quarantine stays were free for Vietnamese throughout most of the pandemic. Thanks to clear directives, Vietnam did not suffer shortages of food or masks, even during lockdowns, and Vietnamese could take advantage of testing and quarantine. 

Read more:  Info for travellers on Covid-19 in Vietnam

Containment response

Vietnam used border closures and targeted lockdowns to halt community transmissions. On January 31, Vietnam closed its border with China and over the coming weeks, more closures from affected areas were announced, until Vietnam shut its borders entirely on March 22. Vietnamese and expats returning from overseas were taken directly into quarantine, where they were given repeated tests before being discharged. 

Whenever Vietnam experienced a surge in cases, the affected neighbourhoods were quickly sealed off. Affected hospitals, streets, and provinces were placed under 14-day lockdowns. During these periods, the government allotted daily groceries to the people within the confined areas. After Vietnam underwent two weeks of nationwide social distancing in April, the government said it would only confine affected areas, and allow other areas to carry on with precautions in place. Because of this, Vietnam enjoyed long periods with no community transmission, wherein people could meet, relax, and travel with family, even during the pandemic. 

Tracing and testing

Vietnam chose to adopt third-degree contact tracing, using both manual and hi-tech methods. Health officials tested and quarantined the close contacts of each infected person, whether they exhibited symptoms or not. The contacts of those people in turn were placed in at-home quarantine, and their contacts in turn. Anyone who tested positive was placed in medical care, while those who tested negative self-isolated at home. Everyone in the country was required to fill out medical declarations, and soon the government launched tracing apps for people to identify potential exposure. 

From the onset of COVID-19, Vietnam was quick to develop its own testing. On February 25, the World Health Organization (WHO) approved a Vietnamese-made RT-PCR test kit, and other made-in-Vietnam rapid detection kits were ordered and exported around the world. After a cluster of cases appeared in Da Nang in June, health officials in Hanoi performed 120,000 tests on locals returning from the central province. Data compiled by Reuters in April of 2020 shows that Vietnam holds the highest ratio of tests to confirmed cases in the world. 

Public information

The Ministry of Information took on the task of conveying news and advice to the public. Locals had access to the latest updates via an official COVID-19 web portal , which was updated daily with transparent information on new cases. SMS texts were sent out regularly from the Ministry of Health offering health recommendations and encouraging those with symptoms to call health hotlines.

The communications campaign went a step further when a pop song from 2017 was remixed into an anti-COVID-19 anthem. Named ‘Ghen Co Vy’ (jealous COVID), the catchy tune outlined best practices for repelling the virus. It also garnered more than 65 million views on YouTube, and international attention. Vietnam’s Ministry of Health later collaborated with TikTok and UNICEF on a ‘#ONhaVanVui’ (staying home is fun) campaign, which has more than 10 billion combined views.

Read more:  Inspiring stories from Vietnam in Covid-19

Community spirit

Vietnam’s strong community spirit was an essential element in the fight to contain the virus. Medical students donated time to contact tracing and treating those in quarantine. Soldiers gave up their barracks for quarantined patients. Students and veterans donated savings for relief efforts. Many generous individuals and organizations provided free meals and essentials to those who have lost their income, and Vietnamese together contributed more than 12 million USD in donations to a government fund to buy medical equipment and care for patients in quarantine camps.

Vietnamese generosity extended beyond its borders as well. The country donated more than 420,000 USD worth of masks to nations with masks shortages. In April alone, Vietnam gave 500,000 face masks to five European nations and 300,000 USD worth of medical equipment to neighbouring Laos and Cambodia. Ultimately, it was the collective efforts of the Vietnamese people that helped the nation overcome the challenges of the pandemic. 

Further reading:

Timeline of COVID -19 and Vietnam policy actions at a Glance  —  Open Development Vietnam.

Vietnam’s Pandemic Success Is a Lesson for the World  — Global Asia.

Emerging COVID-19 Success Story: Vietnam’s Commitment to Containment  —  Our World in Data.

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• WEATHER ALERT Excessive Heat Watch Full Story

As COVID-19 cases tick up in some places, US health officials recommend a fall vaccination campaign

With fresh COVID-19 cases bubbling up in some parts of the country, health officials are setting course for a fall vaccination campaign.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday recommended new shots for all Americans this fall.

Officials acknowledged the need for shots is not as dire as it was only a few years ago. Most Americans have some degree of immunity from being infected, from past vaccinations or both. COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations last month were at about their lowest point since the pandemic first hit the United States in 2020.

But immunity wanes, new coronavirus variants keep emerging and there are still hundreds of COVID-19-associated deaths and thousands of hospitalizations reported each week.

SEE ALSO: COVID-19 'FLiRT' subvariants on the rise across the US. Here's what to know

What's more, health officials have reported upticks this month in COVID-19-associated emergency room visits and hospitalizations, and a pronounced increase in positive test results in the southwestern U.S.

It's not clear whether that's a sign of a coming summer wave - which has happened before - or just a blip, said Lauren Ancel Meyers of the University of Texas, who leads a research team that tracks COVID-19.

"We'll have to see what happens in the coming weeks," she said.

Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration - following the guidance of its own panel of expert advisers - told vaccine manufacturers to target the JN.1 version of the virus. But a week later, the FDA told manufacturers that if they could still switch, a better target might be an offshoot subtype called KP.2.

At a Thursday meeting at the CDC in Atlanta, infectious disease experts unanimously recommended the updated vaccines for Americans age 6 months and older. The CDC director signed off on the recommendation later in the day. The shots are expected to become available in August and September.

Health officials have told Americans to expect a yearly update to COVID-19 vaccines, just like they are recommended to get a new shot each fall to protect against the latest flu strains.

But many Americans aren't heeding the CDC's advice.

As of last month, less than one-quarter of U.S. adults and 14% of children were up to date in their COVID shots. Surveys show shrinking percentages of Americans think COVID-19 is a major health threat to the U.S. population, and indicate that fewer doctors are urging patients to get updated vaccines.

CDC officials on Thursday presented recent survey information in which about 23% of respondents said they would definitely get an updated COVID-19 shot this fall, but 33% said they definitely would not.

Meanwhile, the CDC's Bridge Access Program - which has been paying for shots for uninsured U.S. adults - is expected to shut down in August because of discontinued funding. The program paid for nearly 1.5 million doses from September to last month.

"It is a challenge with this program going away," said the CDC's Shannon Stokley.

About 1.2 million U.S. COVID-associated deaths have been reported since early 2020, according to the CDC. The toll was most intense in the winter of 2020-2021, when weekly deaths surpassed 20,000. About 1 out of every 100 Americans ages 75 and older were hospitalized with COVID in the last four years, CDC officials said Thursday.

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Việt Nam News

Call for efforts to minimise the impact of skyrocketing sea freight costs.

HÀ NỘI — The Việt Nam Maritime Administration (Vinamarine) has called for efforts to minimise impacts of skyrocketing sea freight costs on imports and exports.

Vinamarine’s statistics show that global container shipping fees have increased by 12 per cent, while costs on routes from Asia to Europe have risen by 11-14 per cent.

International container shipping rates have increased by more than 70 per cent over the same period last year and by more than 110 per cent compared to the time before the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are fears that the lack of empty containers, disruptions caused by Red Sea conflicts and rising transport demands could push up sea freight rates to the records set during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rates tend to increase rapidly and even change within a day, according to Phạm Quốc Long, President of Việt Nam Ship Agents, Brokers and Maritime Services Providers Association.

Previously, shipping lines normally quoted container freight rates for a period of 15-30 days but now they only quote for a week.

Current rates are double but are still five times lower than during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Long said that the biggest impact was on small businesses that sign short-term charter contracts, but since most enterprises in Việt Nam were small or medium sized, they were bearing the brunt of price increases. Việt Nam’s charterers should join together to gather goods so that they could have better positions in negotiation with carriers, he said.

Most recently the Ministry of Transport asked Vinamarine to work with port companies, associations and shipping lines to figure out problems and offer possible solutions.

Vinamarine has asked supervision to be enhanced on the collection of port services charges and surcharges in addition to container shipping fees.

Efforts also need to be enhanced to prevent congestion at ports, ensure the supply of empty containers and speed up the release of goods.

Vinamarine also urged enterprises to increase cooperation to develop production and transportation plans together as base to negotiate long-term contracts with carriers so that the impacts from fluctuating freight rates can be mitigated. — VNS

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CDC issues health alert as dengue cases hit record high. See how many reported in Florida

Puerto rico has declared a public health emergency, with almost 1,500 cases of dengue this year.

The Centers for Disease Control has issued a health alert over the increased risk of dengue virus infections in the United States.

Dengue fever, a viral infection transmitted by mosquitoes , has been reported in 43 states — including Florida — so far this year, according to the CDC.

A total of 2,241 dengue cases in the U.S. were reported on the CDC website early Wednesday, June 26. Of those cases, 1,496 were acquired locally. The remainder were travel related.

How many cases of dengue fever have been reported in Florida?

The CDC reports there have been 197 cases of dengue in Florida in 2024. Of those, six were acquired locally, and 191 were travel related.

The majority of the dengue cases acquired in Florida were in Miami-Dade County, according to the Florida Department of Health.

In 2022, the latest data available from Florida Health Charts, there were 966 cases of dengue fever reported in Florida. Counties with dengue cases were:

• 675: Miami-Dade
• 77: Hillsborough
• 57: Broward
• 29: Palm Beach
• 13: Collier, Orange
• 5: Osecola, Sarasota
• 3: Hendry, Pasco, Volusia
• 2: Escambia, Flagler, Hernando, Manatee, Martin, Suwannee
• 1: Bay, Brevard, Charlotte, Indian River, Lake, Leon, St. Johns, Santa Rosa

Why did the CDC issue a health alert on dengue?

The CDC said it issued the health alert to notify healthcare providers, public health authorities and the public of an increased risk of dengue virus infections in the United States in 2024.

"Global incidence of dengue in 2024 has been the highest on record for this calendar year; many countries are reporting higher-than-usual  dengue case numbers . In 2024,  countries in the Americas  have reported a record-breaking number of dengue cases, exceeding the highest number ever recorded in a single year," the CDC said.

"From Jan. 1 through June 24, 2024, countries in the Americas reported more than 9.7 million dengue cases, twice as many as in all of 2023 (4.6 million cases). In the United States, Puerto Rico has declared a public health emergency (1,498 cases) and a higher-than-expected number of dengue cases have been identified among U.S. travelers (745 cases)." 

How do people get dengue?

Dengue is a viral disease  caused by any of four related viruses, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

The  dengue virus spreads from person to person  through the bite from an infected  Aedes aegypti  or  Aedes albopictus  mosquito, both of which are present in Florida , according to the Florida Department of Health.

After a female  mosquito bites a person infected with the dengue  virus, there's an incubation period of eight to 12 days. After that time, the mosquito can transmit the virus for the rest of their one-month life span, the CDC said.

Is there a treatment if you get dengue?

There are no antiviral medications approved to treat dengue , the CDC said.

Treatment is supportive, when needed.

What are the symptoms of dengue fever?

The most  common dengue symptom  is a high fever of 104 degrees, and any of the following signs:

• Muscle, bone or joint pain
• Pain behind the eyes
• Swollen glands

Mild symptoms of dengue can be confused with other illnesses that cause fever, the CDC said.

Symptoms of dengue typically  last two to seven days.

Most people will recover after about a week.

When to seek emergency help if you think you have dengue

Severe dengue is a medical emergency , the CDC said. Warning signs usually begin in the 24 to 48 hours after your fever has gone away.

"About 1 in 20 people who get sick with dengue will develop severe dengue. Severe dengue can result in shock, internal bleeding, and death." A blood test is the only way to confirm the diagnosis.

"Untreated  severe dengue fever  may have a mortality rate of 10% to 20%. However, with appropriate supportive care, the mortality rate can be reduced to approximately 1%," the National Library of Medicine said.

Go to a local clinic or emergency room if you have any of the following symptoms:

• Belly pain or tenderness
• Vomiting (at least three times in 24 hours)
• Bleeding from the nose or gums
• Vomiting blood, or blood in the stool
• Feeling extremely tired or restless

Recommendations to protect yourself from mosquitoes

• Use Environmental Protection Agency-approved repellents during travel to and after returning from areas with frequent or continuous dengue transmission.
• Wear loose-fitting, long-sleeved pants and shirts.
• Use air conditioning and window screens when possible, to lower risk for mosquito bites indoors.
• Dump and drain containers that hold water to reduce mosquito egg-laying sites in your home and neighborhood.
• Seek medical care if you have a fever or have dengue symptoms and live in or traveled to an area with dengue  outbreaks  .
• If you plan international travel to a  an area with frequent or continuous dengue transmission , protect yourself from mosquito bites during and after your trip.

How bad is traffic in Dallas? One study says it’s only getting worse

Dallas roads are getting more congested, according to a new traffic study.

Transportation data and analytics company INRIX studied hundreds of cities around the world and found that post-COVID, traffic patterns are still adjusting , with a new midday rush hour and different peak travel times.

Traffic in Dallas has increased 12% compared to before the pandemic, according to the company’s 2023 Global Traffic Scorecard. The report ranked Dallas as the 17th most congested city in the country.

Long-distance commuting has surged across the country after the pandemic, according to a study by Stanford University researchers . On average, people who work in Dallas have added 35 miles per trip to their commutes. “Super commuting” more than 75 miles to work has increased 29% post-pandemic, the study found.

Bob Pishue, the traffic scorecard’s author and a transportation data analyst at INRIX, said Dallas doesn’t have as much traffic as other large metros, despite its size. Toll roads and public-private partnerships give the city more ways to address transportation issues to alleviate traffic.

“Texas is always looking at interesting ways to finance and deliver infrastructure, and that is not that common in other states or areas,” Pishue said. “Dallas isn’t afraid to build.”

While the city isn’t among the country’s most congested, Dallas drivers still face busy roads every day.

“If you’re sitting in it, it sucks,” Pishue said. “[But] for its size, it does pretty well in terms of traffic congestion and delay.”

The average driver in Dallas lost 38 hours due to congestion in 2023, a six-hour increase from 2022, costing $658 in wasted time. This was slightly below the national average of 42 hours. The value of time lost in traffic was based on the U.S. Federal Highway Administration’s 2016 guidance , which puts one hour in traffic at $17.45 after adjusting for inflation. The value takes into account a population’s average hourly income, demographics, mode of transportation, purpose of travel, distance and other factors.

Dallas’ U.S. Highway 80 eastbound from Interstate 635 to FM 548 in Forney was the 11th most congested corridor in the country, with drivers losing 66 hours due to traffic on that corridor alone. Its peak congestion is reported around 5 p.m., the study found. The Texas Department of Transportation is in the process of expanding that route from two lanes to three in each direction as the Kaufman County city ranks among the fastest-growing in the country.

Interstate 30 westbound from St. Francis Avenue to Interstate 345 is the city’s second busiest corridor, with an average delay of 34 hours annually for Dallas drivers. Third was North Walton Walker Boulevard.

The company has published an annual report on traffic patterns for more than 15 years. The scorecard looks at nearly 1,000 cities across 37 countries to see how traffic is changing and uses anonymized data from trucking fleets, delivery vehicles, passenger vehicles, mobile apps and more.

The pandemic changed traffic patterns, but congestion is ramping back up as people return to offices. Still, Pishue sees a “new normal” on the roads. Dallas is one of many American cities experiencing a new midday traffic rush as work schedules are more flexible and many people work from home.

INRIX found a 23% increase in midday trips in the U.S. compared to before the pandemic. Almost as many trips are made nationwide at noon as at 5 p.m., the report said. Work hours and changes to the traditional workday have also affected traffic patterns. Across the country, the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. each saw a higher volume of trips than 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Another change has occurred in downtown trips. In Dallas, Pishue said the downtown holds only about 2% of the region’s jobs, and the pandemic deemphasized, to different degrees, downtown areas across the country as economic centers. But in 2023, the city’s downtown trip volume was up 3% and the average speed for drivers downtown was 16 mph.

The scorecard put New York City as the most congested city in the world, followed by Mexico City and London. According to the report, traffic congestion shows economic growth but also means lost time and money for commuters.

The report helps cities identify problems in transportation systems and address issues relating to traffic patterns , Pishue said.

“Those that do it best, at least right now, are looking at these post-COVID travel patterns and adjusting,” Pishue said. “That’s what it’s about, is being able to adjust more frequently.”

©2024 The Dallas Morning News. Visit dallasnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Asteroid headed toward Earth? NASA simulation explores how the nation might respond

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NASA asteroid simulation

Asteroid moonlet Dimorphos as seen by NASA's DART spacecraft 11 seconds before the impact that shifted its path through space, in the first test of asteroid deflection. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/NASA hide caption

Imagine if scientists discovered a giant asteroid with a 72% chance of hitting the Earth in about 14 years — a space rock so big that it could not only take out a city but devastate a whole region.

This is the hypothetical scenario that asteroid experts, NASA workers, federal emergency management officials, and their international partners recently discussed as part of a table-top simulation designed to improve the nation’s ability to respond to future asteroid threats, according to a report just released by the space agency.

“Right now we don't know of any asteroids of a substantial size that are going to hit the Earth for the next hundred years,” says Terik Daly , the planetary defense section supervisor at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.

“But we also know,” says Daly, “that we don't know where most of the asteroids are that are large enough to cause regional devastation.”

NASA experts and federal emergency management officials dealing with a hypothetical incoming asteroid threat in April of 2024. Ed Whitman/NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory hide caption

Astronomers estimate that there are roughly 25,000 of these “near-Earth objects” that are 140 meters across or larger, but only about 43% have been found to date, according to materials prepared for the table-top exercise, held in April in Laurel, Md.

This event was just the latest in a series of drills that planetary defense experts have held every couple of years to practice how they’d handle news of a potentially planet-menacing asteroid — and it’s the first since NASA’s DART mission , which showed that ramming a spacecraft into an asteroid could change its path through space.

This time around, just after the fictional asteroid’s discovery, scientists estimated its size to be anywhere from 60 meters to almost 800 meters across.

Even an asteroid on the smaller end of that range could have a big impact, depending on where it hit the Earth, says Lindley Johnson , NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer Emeritus.

While “a 60-meter asteroid impacting somewhere in the middle of the ocean” wouldn’t be a real problem, he says, the same asteroid hitting land near a metropolitan area would be “a serious situation.”

Because telescopes would see such an asteroid as just a point of light in space, says Daly, “we're going to have very large uncertainties in the asteroid's properties, and that leads to very large uncertainties in what the consequences would be if it were to hit the ground, as well as large uncertainties in what it would take to stop that asteroid from hitting the ground.”

What’s more, this particular scenario unnervingly stipulated that scientists wouldn’t be able to learn more about this threat for more than six months, when telescopes could spot the asteroid again and do another assessment of its trajectory.

Exercise participants discussed three options: simply waiting and doing nothing until those next telescope observations; starting a U. S.-led space mission to have a spacecraft fly by the asteroid to get more information; or creating an effort to build a more expensive spacecraft that would be capable of spending time around the asteroid and possibly even changing its path through space.

Unlike previous asteroid-threat simulations, this one did not play out to a dramatic ending. “We actually stayed stuck in one moment in time for the duration of the exercise. We didn't fast-forward,” says Daly.

As a result, attendees had plenty of time to discuss how to communicate both the uncertainties and the urgent need to act. They also discussed how funding and other practical considerations might play into the decision-making processes in federal agencies and Congress.

Daly says in previous discussions, technical experts tended to assume that access to funding wouldn’t be an issue in such an unprecedented situation, but “the reality is, absolutely, cost was a concern and a factor.”

NASA’s report on the exercise notes that “many stakeholders expressed that they would want as much information about the asteroid as soon as possible but expressed skepticism that funding would be forthcoming to obtain such information without more definitive knowledge of the risk.”

While representatives from space institutions had a clear preference for quickly taking action, “what would political leaders actually do?” says Daly. “That was really an open question that lingered throughout.”

Getting some kind of spacecraft ready, finding the right launch window for it, and having it travel through space to an asteroid “eats up a decade of time pretty fast,” says Johnson. “So that is certainly a concern, looking at it from the technological standpoint.”

But something like 14 years of advance notice will seem like tons of time to emergency managers and disaster responders, says Leviticus “L.A.” Lewis , a Federal Emergency Management Agency employee assigned to work with NASA.

Lewis notes that emergency managers would have to think about devoting resources to this seemingly far-off threat while also responding to more immediate hazards like tornadoes and hurricanes. “It’s going to be a particular challenge,” he says.

In the meantime, NASA is on track to launch a new asteroid-finding telescope in the fall of 2027, says Johnson.

“We’ve got to discover what’s out there, determine their orbits, and then determine whether they represent an impact hazard to the Earth over time,” he says.

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TSA says it screened a record of nearly 3 million people Sunday, and bigger crowds are on the way

FILE - Passengers wait in a security line at Denver International Airport on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023. The TSA expects to break the 3 million mark on Friday, as many Americans get an early start on their July 4 travel plans. It’s just the start of what promises to be a busy summer. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert, File)

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The number of air travelers moving through U.S. airports hit a record Sunday, and the new mark might not last through next weekend.

The Transportation Security Administration said it screened nearly 3 million people at airports Sunday, breaking a record set on May 24, the Friday before Memorial Day.

TSA forecasts that it will break the 3-million barrier on Friday, when many people will be getting an early start on their July 4 holiday travel plans.

“We expect this summer to be our busiest ever and summer travel usually peaks over the Independence Day holiday,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said.

Sunday’s TSA count was 2,996,193, or about 45,000 more than the 2,951,163 who flowed through checkpoints on May 24. Seven of the 10 busiest days in TSA history have occurred this year, as travel continues to roar back from the coronavirus pandemic.

TSA expects to screen more than 32 million people between Thursday and July 8, the Monday after the holiday, for a daily average of 2.67 million. That would be a 5.4% increase over the July 4 period last year.

Airlines for America, a trade group representing the largest U.S. carriers, predicts that air travel this summer will rise 6.3% over last year.

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Why Is Putin in Vietnam?

President Vladimir V. Putin is keen to maintain the longstanding military ties between Russia and Vietnam, as Hanoi has developed deeper bonds with Washington.

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By Sui-Lee Wee

Reporting from Bangkok

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia wrapped up a state visit to one ally, North Korea, and moved on to another, Vietnam, arriving early Thursday hoping to shore up crucial partnerships in the region as he wages a protracted war in Ukraine.

Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine has left him isolated from the West, and his need for munitions to fight that war has pushed him closer to North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong-un. The two leaders have bonded over their common historical opponent, the United States, and on Wednesday revived a Cold War-era mutual defense pledge between their nations.

In Vietnam, by contrast, Mr. Putin met with officials who have recently forged deeper bonds with Washington. But Moscow has long been Hanoi’s main source of weapons, and Mr. Putin is keen to hold on to that position.

It is Mr. Putin’s fifth visit to Vietnam and follows trips last year by President Biden and President Xi Jinping of China, two leaders who sought assurances from Hanoi that it was not taking the other’s side.

For Vietnam, Mr. Putin’s trip will be an opportunity to solidify ties with Russia, its most important defense partner. Even though it has upgraded relations with the United States, Vietnam was still looking for secret ways last year to purchase Russian military equipment in contravention of American sanctions.

On Thursday morning, in typical scripted fashion, Vietnamese schoolchildren — waving both the Russian and Vietnamese flags — lined the Hanoi streets as Mr. Putin’s motorcade drove by. He was greeted by Vietnam’s newly installed president , To Lam, who gave him a hug.

Later, Mr. Putin was given a 21-gun salute at the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, an important historical site in the center of the capital. A military band played the national anthems of both countries. The two leaders will hold a news conference after the talks are over, according to Vietnamese state media.

Washington has rebuked Hanoi for inviting the Russian leader, saying, “No country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalize his atrocities.”

This week, Mr. Lam told the local Russian envoy that Hanoi “always considers Russia one of the top priority partners in its foreign policy.”

Here’s what to know about relations between Moscow and Hanoi.

Russia and Vietnam have deep military ties.

In 1950, the Soviet Union was among the first countries to give diplomatic recognition to what was then the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, or North Vietnam. Over decades, Moscow became Vietnam’s biggest donor, providing military aid when Hanoi was fighting its wars against France and the United States.

The defense relationship has underpinned many ties between the two countries, which over the years also shared communist ideology. Mr. Putin arrived in Vietnam with his new defense minister, Andrei R. Belousov, underscoring how security matters are central to the visit.

Russian equipment represents about 60 percent to 70 percent of Vietnam’s defense arsenal, according to Nguyen The Phuong, who studies Vietnam’s military affairs at the University of New South Wales in Australia. Russia has supplied Vietnam with coastal defense missile systems, six Kilo-class submarines, fighter jets and many more lethal weapons.

Nearly all of Vietnam’s naval vessels come from Russia, according to Mr. Phuong. Russia’s T-90 tanks, which were the last-known major purchase of Russian arms by Vietnam in 2016, form the backbone of Vietnam’s armored forces, he added. This means that Vietnam is still going to be reliant on Russia in the years to come.

Vietnam has looked beyond Russia for weapons.

But the imposition of Western sanctions on Moscow has increased concerns in Hanoi about Russia’s reliability as a supplier, and made it increasingly awkward for Vietnam to continue dealing with Russia as it engages with the West.

Many of Vietnam’s leaders are also aware of the Russian military’s struggles against Ukraine — footage has shown the T-90 tanks being blown apart by drones used by Ukraine. They are also cognizant of Russia’s deepening relationship with China, which they regard as a threat because of a longstanding territorial dispute in the South China Sea.

In recent months, it has turned to countries like South Korea, Japan and the Czech Republic as alternative sources of weapons. It has also tried to build up its own defense industry. It has looked to India, another former Soviet ally, to retrofit some of its weapons.

The United States has been actively offering more weapons to Vietnam, with senior officials traveling to the country in recent months. But analysts say the top echelons of Vietnam’s defense leadership remain suspicious of Washington. They are reluctant to tie their fate to a country where arms sales have to be passed through a Congress that could make the deal contingent on human rights.

The two nations have joint ventures in the oil business.

Russia has a significant stake in Vietnam’s lucrative oil and gas sector. Vietsovpetro, a joint venture run by Russia’s Zarubezhneft and Vietnam’s state-owned PetroVietnam, operates Vietnam’s largest oil field, Bach Ho.

The profits from Vietsovpetro have generated millions of dollars for both Russia and Vietnam. Zarubezhneft and Gazprom, another Russian state-owned energy firm, are also involved in oil exploration projects in Vietnam.

For Moscow, these projects come at a time when Russian oil and gas exports to Europe have plummeted following the imposition of sanctions from the European Union. But they have irked Beijing because they are in waters that it contends are part of its territory.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Vietnam was also a particularly attractive destination for Russian tourists. In 2019, Russia sent the sixth-highest number of tourists of any nation to Vietnam, just after the United States. But the numbers dropped during the pandemic and fell further after Vietnam stopped direct flights in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Direct flights resumed this year.

Mr. Putin is seen as popular with the Vietnamese brass.

Beginning in the 1950s, thousands of Vietnamese Communist Party officials , top business officials, doctors, teachers and soldiers were trained in the Soviet Union and Russia. That list includes the current party chief, Nguyen Phu Trong.

But some felt those deep ties were ignored by the last Soviet leader, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, and Russia’s first president, Boris N. Yeltsin.

“The Vietnamese feel that Gorbachev in the 1980s abandoned Vietnam in an effort to improve relations with China; Yeltsin, all through the 90s, barely paid any attention to Vietnam,” said Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. “Once Putin was in power in 2000, he gave a lot of face to it. So the Vietnamese are grateful for that.”

He added that the Vietnamese leadership liked Mr. Putin because “he put Vietnam-Russia relations back on track.”

Paul Sonne and Damien Cave contributed reporting.

Sui-Lee Wee is the Southeast Asia bureau chief for The Times, overseeing coverage of 11 countries in the region. More about Sui-Lee Wee

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U.S. envoy visits Hanoi days after Putin, saying U.S.-Vietnam trust is at ‘all-time high’

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A senior U.S. diplomat held talks in Vietnam on Saturday and said that the trust between the two countries was at an “all-time high,” just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to Hanoi .

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink insisted that his trip was unrelated to Putin’s visit on Thursday. Vietnam had elevated the United States to its highest diplomatic status, comprehensive strategic partner, last year, putting it at the same level as China and Russia. The elevation of the U.S. ties suggested that Vietnam wanted to hedge its friendships as Western companies look to diversify their supply chains away from China.

Kritenbrink was speaking at a briefing for selected media in Hanoi. A recording of the interaction was reviewed by the Associated Press.

Putin’s trip to Hanoi had triggered a sharp rebuke from the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, which said that “no country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalize his atrocities,” referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, now in its third year.

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The American East Asia envoy echoed those concerns but said that he made it clear to Vietnamese officials that the “main reason” for his trip was the partnership between the U.S. and Vietnam. He met Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son.

“Only Vietnam can decide how best to safeguard its sovereignty and advance its interests,” he said, while stressing the economic relations between Vietnam and its largest export market, the U.S. Trade between the two countries was $111 billion in 2023 — compared with $3.6 billion between Vietnam and Russia.

Russia remains important for Vietnam, not just because it is an old ally from the Cold War era, but also because it continues to be its biggest defense supplier and Russian oil exploration technologies help maintain Vietnam’s sovereignty claims in the contested South China Sea.

Kritenbrink said that China’s increasingly assertive actions in pressing its claims to virtually the entire South China Sea were a cause of “great concern” for the region and the world.

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The territorial disputes, which involve China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan, have long been seen as an Asian flashpoint that could pit the U.S. against China if the high seas confrontations escalate into an armed conflict.

Vietnam said Friday that it was ready to hold talks with the Philippines to settle their overlapping claims to the undersea continental shelf in the South China Sea in a diplomatic approach that contrasts with China.

“We think that China’s actions, particularly its recent actions, around the Second Thomas Shoal, vis-à-vis the Philippines have been irresponsible, aggressive, dangerous, deeply destabilizing,” Kritenbrink said. He stressed that defense treaties between the U.S. and its ally the Philippines were “ironclad.”

The Philippines said Friday it has no plan to invoke its mutual defense treaty with the U.S. after the Chinese coast guard reportedly rammed, boarded and used machetes and axes to damage two Philippine navy boats in a chaotic face-off that injured Filipino navy personnel.

Ghosal writes for the Associated Press.

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