Le Trung Chinh, Chairman of the city People’s Committee, said on Monday that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had called for a stop to crowded festivals amid the high risk of a fresh Covid outbreak as the pandemic is worsening in neighboring countries.

Cambodia, Laos and Thailand have been struggling with a surge in community transmissions linked to new variants.

One of Vietnam’s biggest tourism events, the fireworks festival in Da Nang attracts pyrotechnic teams from Belgium, Brazil, China, Italy, Russia, the Netherlands, and other countries and thousands of spectators every year. In 2017 what used to be a two-day competition became a month-long festival.

Vietnam stopped all international commercial flights last March. International visitors entering the country since are mainly experts, high-tech workers, investors and foreigners working on national projects.

Da Nang, a top tourist attraction in central Vietnam and a neighbor of ancient town Hoi An, is famous for its long, sandy beaches like My Khe.