Vietnam scraps Covid test requirement for child flyers

The ministry on Friday relaxed restrictions for passengers on domestic flights, allowing people not in quarantined locations or areas with very high coronavirus risks to skip showing vaccination certificates or proof of Covid-19 recovery. Children not in these areas also won't have to be tested to fly.

A requirement for flight crew members to undergo weekly Covid-19 tests has also been scrapped.

However, passengers must still perform medical declarations and use the PC-Covid app. They are still not allowed to fly if they have symptoms like coughing, fever, muscle ache, a sore throat or loss of taste.

The newly relaxed restrictions are to relieve the burden on people traveling during the Tet holiday, given that the coronavirus situation in Vietnam has largely been put under control and most of the population has been vaccinated, according to the transport ministry.

Previously, the ministry required people in quarantined locations or areas with very high coronavirus risks to produce a negative Covid-19 test obtained within 72 hours to fly. Other people would need to either be fully vaccinated, recovered from Covid-19 or test negative in the last 72 hours. Children below 12, who have not been vaccinated, had to be tested for Covid-19.