Business News

The Prime Minister has agreed a Health Ministry proposal on declaring the Covid-19 outbreak 'a national epidemic', asking people nationwide to stay home, heavily restricting their outside movements.

According to an urgent dispatch sent by the Ministry of Transport to the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam, the Vietnam Railway Authority and local Transport Departments, routes to or from Hanoi and HCMC with a distance of under 100 kilometers can be used for up to two trips per day. Other routes can only be used to make one trip per day.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc called on the public to stay at home and work online to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, given several hot spots in Hanoi and HCMC where more than a dozen of infection cases have been confirmed.

Ha Noi municipal authorities have issued a list of essential services allowed to open as part of the city's efforts to contain spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of Monday afternoon, as many as 25 provinces and localities have reported COVID-19 infection cases, in which Ha Noi tops the list with 73 patients.

Viet Nam received over 3.68 million foreign arrivals in the first three months of 2020, representing a year-on-year decrease of 18.1%, the National Administration of Tourism reported.

"Hanoi requests that the prime minister lets some administrative entities in both Hanoi and other localities be off work," Hanoi Chairman Nguyen Duc Chung said in an online meeting with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on fighting the Covid-19 pandemic in the country on Sunday.

The Ministry of Transport green-lit the Civil Aviation Authority of Việt Nam’s proposal to limit domestic flights from Hà Nội and HCM City to other cities and provinces to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).