Vietnam Requires Health Declaration at All Border Gates to Fight MERS-CoV

Vietnam is requiring visitors arriving at all airports and border gates across the country to fill out a health declaration starting on June 5, the Emergency Operations Center under the Ministry of Health (MoH) said Thursday after a meeting aimed at intensifying efforts to prevent a possible spread of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome caused by the Corona virus, known as MERS-CoV. All visitors that travel by air, sea and road to Vietnam from MERS-CoV infected countries within the past 14 days will have to complete the health declaration, which will be provided in three languages namely Vietnamese, English and Korean. The move was made two days after the Center for International Health Quarantine under the Hanoi Department of Health began asking South Korean visitors arriving at Noi Bai international airport to complete a health quarantine form as the number of infections in the East Asian nation has increased to 35 with three deaths as of June 3. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health Thursday checked all precaution measures at two hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City, noting that any suspected MERS-CoV infections in the southern region will be transferred to the Cho Ray Hospital and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases for treatment. Each day, Hanoi welcomes ten flights from South Korea and the Middle East, with about 200 passengers per flight, while HCM City receives about 2,000 South Korean visitors. The tightened airport screening is important as there are over 20,000 Vietnamese workers in the Middle East and another 26,000 illegal Vietnamese workers in South Korea who will likely be deported soon. Since it was first detected in Saudi Arabia in 2012, there have been a total of 1,184 cases in 26 countries and 442 have died, according to the World Health Organization. (Thanh Nien – Young People June 5 p3, Hanoi Moi – New Hanoi June 5 p7, Lao Dong – Labor June 5 p1, Tin Tuc - News June 5 p5)