The HCMC health authority asked the HCMC Center for Disease Control (HCDC) to change the health declaration requirement for arriving passengers starting from April 25.

The move will help prevent the arrival lounge from being overcrowded. Data from the Department of Health showed that since mid-March, international arrivals have steadily climbed, with an average 40 flights landing at Tan Son Nhat with a total of 4,000-5,000 passengers onboard.

Under the prevailing anti-pandemic rules of the Ministry of Health, all arriving passengers at Vietnam’s international border gates are required to produce proof of negative test results and file a health declaration on the website tokhaiyte.vn.

This health monitoring procedure will certainly make the Tan Son Nhat airport even more overwhelmed as the central Government reopened the country’s borders on March 15.

According to the HCMC Health Department, airlines are required to ensure all passengers have proof of negative Covid test results before boarding flights to Vietnam. Therefore, there is no need for HCDC staff at the airport to ask these passengers to produce this proof again upon arrival.

To prevent crowds at the arrival lounge, passengers are advised to declare their health status prior to arrival in Vietnam to get a QR code which should be simply shown to HCDC staff on the way to the immigration area at the airport. There is a separate lane for these passengers.

Other passengers can make a health declaration by scanning the QR code available along the way to the arrival lounge and produce the QR code of their health declaration when they meet HCDC staff. Also, they can enter a zone designated for making health declarations at the airport.

The Southern Airports Authority, again, asked airlines to inform all passengers of the pre-departure health declaration requirement.

A few days ago, the HCMC government had written to the Ministry of Health proposing suspension of the on-arrival health declaration rule at the airport.

Source: SGT