COVID-19 Health Commitment will no longer be compulsory for passengers travelling by air or rail in Viet Nam, the Ministry of Transport has announced.

As of 0am on Monday, October 25, air and rail passengers will no longer be required to make commitment to follow the recommended health requirements for controlling COVID-19 in public transport services and their places of residence.

COVID-19 Health Commitment will no longer be compulsory for passengers travelling by air or rail in Viet Nam from October 25. Photo: THANH LAN

Earlier on October 20, the Ministry of Transport issued temporary guidance for resuming regular domestic flights and rail services on the Ha Noi- Ho Chi Minh City route with flexible approaches for effective control of COVID-19. In which, air and rail passengers were required to make a thoughtful commitment to follow COVID-19 rules to prevent the spread of the virus with true and accurate personal information before boarding their flight or train, or face tough punishments for non-compliance and providing false information.

However, the Ministry of Transport found that COVID-19 health commitment requirements resulted in many problems such as crowding in railway stations and airports, and departure delays.

The use of the national unified COVID-19 prevention and control app PC-COVID-19 is still recommended for air and rail passengers. PC-COVID has become the single app for all COVID-19 prevention and control activities in Viet Nam, after Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh ordered relevant authorities to unify many separate apps for vaccine certificates, travel permits, health declaration, and contact tracing into one following public complaints of inconvenience.  The app is available on iOS’ App Store and Android’s Google Play Store for smartphones. The app replaces Bluezone, the previous contact tracing platform and it has been added with all functions of the previously-launched apps such as VHD, Bluezone and NCOVI.

Besides, precautionary measures will remain as mandatory legal requirements for air and rail passengers in Viet Nam to reduce the transmission of COVID-19.

Reporting by THANH LAN- translating by H.L