The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam said the quota is to reduce the number of people going to other localities from HCMC and enable effective social distancing at airports.

Vietnam Airlines is allowed to sell a maximum of 700 seats a day, Bamboo Airways and Vietjet Air can sell 400 each and Pacific Airlines’s quota is 200.

In the last few days carriers have operated 13 flights daily with around 4,000 seats.

From Friday all passengers on flights arriving from HCMC to other destinations are required to furnish a Covid-negative certificate.

Currently there are flights to only seven domestic destinations from HCMC, down from 19 earlier.

The country’s commercial hub began applying the most stringent social distancing regulations from Friday, with people only permitted to leave home to shop for items like food and medicines or go to work at factories or businesses that are allowed to open.

HCMC is the new epicenter of the current wave and leads the country with the highest numbers of cases, 9,416.