U.S. business chamber calls on Vietnam to ease quarantine, free up vaccines (updated)
24/05/2021 10:54
(Updates with details on vaccines in paragraphs 8 and 9)
HANOI, May 24 (Reuters) - The American Chamber of Commerce
(AmCham) urged Vietnam on Monday to ease its lengthy quarantine
period for vaccinated travellers and allow the private sector to
help procure COVID-19 vaccines for their employees in the
Southeast Asian country.
Vietnam effectively closed its borders to normal outside
travel in March 2020, and has only allowed its citizens or
foreign experts to enter the country provided they undergo three
weeks of quarantine at a hotel or military-run centre, even if
they have been vaccinated.
"AmCham encourages authorities to implement less burdensome
entry procedures for fully vaccinated business people, foreign
experts and maybe even tourists," AmCham director Adam Sitkoff
said in a statement.
The statement said 81% of the chamber's members would bring
more people to Vietnam if the mandatory quarantine period was
reduced from its current 21 days down to seven, citing a survey
of its members.
Vietnam has received global praise for its success in
containing COVID-19, thanks to a programme of targeted mass
testing, contact tracing, and a centralised quarantine system.
It has kept its virus tally to a low 5,308 cases, and
reported 43 deaths.
But a new outbreak that has infected 2,254 people since late
April has prompted calls for Vietnam's government to accelerate
its vaccination programme.
So far, around a million doses have been administered in
Vietnam, although just 28,961 people have been fully vaccinated.
Vietnam has placed orders for more vaccines from several
suppliers and received around 2.5 mln doses via the COVAX
sharing scheme. Officials have said they expect to receive more
vaccines by the end of the year, but not enough to achieve
community immunity.
AmCham's Sitkoff told Reuters that many of the chamber's
members were willing to pay to get their workforce vaccinated,
and that there were ongoing discussions with the Vietnamese
government about how to do so.
"A greater sense of urgency is needed for authorities to
formulate a programme and timeline for this to happen," he said.
Vietnam's health ministry did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
(Reporting by James Pearson
Editing by Ed Davies)
((james.pearson@reuters.com; +84-24-3825-9623;))