The municipal People’s Committee on December 27 issued a plan on responding to the Omicron variant in the city.

Accordingly, the city’s Department of Health was tasked to work with other relevant agencies to strengthen supervision at the Noi Bai international airport and monitor people who have travelled to/from countries and regions with the variant such as South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Lesotho and Mozambique.

Entrants must have proof of negative COVID-19 test result 72 hours before arriving in Viet Nam.

The capital city has recorded 41,357 COVID-19 infection cases since April 27 when the fourth wave of coronavirus resurgence began in the Southeast Asian country, including 14,991 cases in the community.

Over the last nine days, Ha Noi has led the country in the daily number of new COVID-19 cases.

The Ministry of Health has recently reported the first Omicron case in a person who returned from the UK.

Earlier, the Civil Aviation Authority of Viet Nam (CAAV) agreed with the Ministry of Health’s proposal on suspension of international flights to/from some African countries due to concerns over the COVID-19 variant Omicron.

The ministry proposed the Government should suspend flights to/from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Lesotho, and Mozambique, and halt entry of arrivals with travel record to these countries.

By Thuy Dung