Vietnam will temporarily suspend the entry for citizens of Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom due to the coronavirus outbreak.

According to the latest decision of Nguyen Xuan Phuc, the Prime Minister of Vietnam, that came into force on March 9, 2020, citizens of these eight countries will need to apply for a visa first, in order to enter Vietnam, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

The latest PM move was announced at a meeting on COVID-19 prevention and control, that was held in Ha Noi, on March 9, 2020.

 “Việt Nam is capable and experienced enough to control the epidemic and considers the protection of citizens’ as the most important task,” Vietnam’s PM pointed out.

During the meeting, Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked for consolidating preparedness, to deal with the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

Prime Minister of Vietnam also asked authorities that all the passengers who were on the flight VN0054 to stay isolated for 14 days.

The flight known as VN0054 landed on March 2 at the Noi Bai International Airport and it was suspected that some of the passengers were affected by COVID-19.

After the medical examination, 13 of the passengers of VN0054 flight, including 9 foreign nationals tested positive for the virus. Therefore, the flight was suspected to be the “focal point” for the transmission of the coronavirus in Vietnam.

Earlier this month, Vietnam temporarily suspended the visa-free regime for Italy, and South Korea as a preventive measure for coronavirus outbreak.

Up to this point, 33 cases of coronavirus have been detected in Vietnam, without any fatal case.

The virus so far has infected 114,809, people worldwide and caused the death of 4,031 people.

By now, China continues to be the most affected country with up to 80,000 COVID-19 cases, followed by Italy (9,172), Iran (8,042), South Korea (7,513) and France (1,412).

Source: Schengen visa info