Japan lowered travel advisories issued for nine regions, including Viet Nam, as the pace of new coronavirus infections is slowing, said Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on October 30.

A Ha Noi-Tokyo flight, Viet Nam’s first international commercial flight after six months
of suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic, carried over 100 passengers to Japan
on September 19, 2020.

Japan lowered travel alerts for infectious diseases for Australia, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Chinese Taipei, China, New Zealand, Brunei and Viet Nam to Level 2 on its scale of four, requesting citizens avoid nonessential trips.

Japan had previously issued a Level 3 alert for those regions, warning citizens against all travel.

 “We will lift the travel alerts for all regions as regular international flights have started to resume,” Motegi said.

Motegi said Japan and Viet Nam have also agreed to restart reciprocal business travel from Sunday.

With the measure, travelers will no longer need to observe a 14-day quarantine upon arrival if they test negative for the coronavirus and turn in itineraries, among other preventive measures.

Viet Nam became the third country with which Japan has resumed travel for people on short-term business trips, following Singapore and South Korea.

Viet Nam recorded no new COVID-19 cases on October 31 morning, keeping the total number of infections to date at 1,177, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

Of the country’s infections, 691 are locally transmitted cases, including 551 cases linked with the outbreak in the central city of Da Nang since July 25.

A total of 1,063 COVID-19 patients had been successfully treated while 35 patients with serious underlying diseases had died.