Vietnam to suspend incoming international flights to Hanoi over COVID

The international airport of Vietnam’s capital will suspend inbound flights from abroad beginning Tuesday, the country’s aviation body announced, as it grapples with a fresh wave of virus outbreaks.

A “temporary suspension of receiving international flights” will begin at Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport from 1 June at midnight until 7 June, the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam said in a statement on Monday.

Vietnam’s health minister said over the weekend that authorities had discovered a highly infectious “new hybrid variant” — a combination of the Indian and UK variants.

Outbound international flights will continue from Hanoi, the statement said, but the government did not say if domestic flights would be part of the suspension.

While authorities promptly rolled back the assertion by saying the mutation still needed to be “studied further”, alarm sounded across the country as it struggled to contain fresh outbreaks in more than half its territory.

Last week, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s southern business hub, issued a halt on foreign arrivals in its Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

The suspension was supposed to be lifted by 4 June, but the CAAV announced Monday that it would continue until 14 June.

Vietnam has already limited entries of foreign arrivals due to its COVID-19 restrictions, and every person coming in is subjected to mandatory quarantine.

— AFP