As of July 1, all people flying to Vietnam from countries affected by the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome caused by the Corona virus (MERS-CoV) are required to fill out health declaration forms before entering the Southeast Asian country.
>> Ministry warns about risk of MERS-CoV spread to Vietnam >> Vietnam airport tightens medical screening for MERS-CoV
Such declaration is stipulated in a new regulation by the Ministry of Health, a health deputy minister, Nguyen Thanh Long, said on Friday.
Under the new rule, visitors from nine Middle East countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan and Iran must make health declarations as a procedure for their entry.
The new regulation will first be applied at three international airports: Noi Bai in Hanoi, Tan Son Nhat in Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang in central Da Nang City.
International health quarantine centers in the three localities are responsible for issuing and providing health declaration forms – written in English and Vietnamese – to visitors.
Health quarantine staff at these airports must control the health declaration and affix a stamp on filled health declaration forms for certification.
Any travelers who suffer from coughing and fever and other symptoms of the MERS-CoV must be taken care of in isolation and reported to the local health authorities, the regulation said.
The Health Ministry decided to take the new move following the fact that the MERS-CoV has so far spread to 22 countries and territories in the world, affecting 701 people and killing 249 of them, since it first appeared in Saudi Arabia in 2012.
As much as 75 percent of the recent MERS-CoV cases have been transmitted from human to human, the ministry said.
Vietnam has yet to detect anyone infected with MERS-CoV, but the virus may penetrate into the country in the future, as there are a large number of Vietnamese guest workers in the Middle East, said Tran Dac Phu, head of the ministry’s Preventive Health Department.
The official warned that the Corona virus causes a mortality rate as high as 30 percent.
He also revealed that the Philippines and Malaysia, two Southeast Asian countries, have recorded MERS-CoV infections among the people who returned home from their visits to the Middle East.
Anyone with symptoms of the syndrome, such as fever, coughing and difficulty breathing, should go to medical facilities for examinations and treatment, he added.
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