Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said the country must be prepared to safely reopen to tourism, ideally by the end of March and no later than the end of April.
Since most students across Vietnam will return to school after the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday, the country will also reopen to tourists in late March.
###: Vietnam has welcomed more than 8,500 foreign tourists since the border reopened
Authorities said all schools will resume classes between February 7 and 14, except for primary and kindergarten children in Hanoi and two southern provinces.
According to a report by UN Express, Education and Training Minister Nguyen Kim Son said authorities in Hanoi, Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces would consult parents before setting a date for reopening, which is expected to be later this month. will be.
With the prolonged closure of schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the ministry has also acknowledged that it may take several years for students to catch up on their studies.
Son said that with the resumption of physical classes, schools should identify students’ mental problems and provide them with counseling and psychological support.
Before the Tet holidays, only 14 counties had reopened schools, 19 had online and television classes, while the remaining 30 had a combination of both.
Son also said all universities and colleges in Vietnam would resume physical classes this month.
The nine-day Tet holiday in Vietnam ends this Sunday.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said the country must be prepared to safely reopen to tourism, ideally by the end of March and no later than the end of April.
He said Vietnam will reopen its tourism industry when certain populations have received their third Covid-19 vaccination and good immigration control policies are in place.
The UN Express said the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism had previously proposed Vietnam to fully reopen tourism from March 31.
The ministry said those entering Vietnam must either be fully vaccinated or have recovered from Covid-19, have a negative PCR test within the last 72 hours before arrival and have US$50,000 medical insurance covering the treatment of Covid-19 covers.
The push for reopening became even stronger last week when 11 airlines and travel agents asked the government to announce the timeline for fully reopening the country to foreign tourists in early February.
As the country closed its borders since the pandemic hit in early 2020, foreign arrivals dropped 96 percent last year and the country’s tourism and related industries have collapsed.
The vaccine passport program has been in place since November last year and a limited number of foreign tourists have visited the country so far.
Since then, about 8,500 foreign tourists have arrived in the country, about half of whom have visited selected provinces, while the others were Vietnamese who lived abroad and came to visit their relatives.
