China is keeping personnel in isolation and so does not have enough officers to clear goods passing through the border, Vietnam’s consulate in China’s southern Nanning City informed the Vietnam National Border Committee and northern provinces on Sunday.

So gates like the ones in Na Hinh, Binh Nghi and Coc Nam in Lang Son Province on the border with China’s Guangxi Province will remain closed. 

Vietnamese authorities had closed them following the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday, leaving hundreds of containers carrying dragon fruit and watermelon unable to enter China.

Last Wednesday Huu Nghi, a major border gate in Lang Son Province, resumed customs clearance of goods, enabling dozens of containers with agricultural produce that were stuck at the border to enter China. 

But drivers transporting goods from Vietnam to China would be isolated for 14 days upon their return as a precaution against the novel coronavirus, the Lang Son people’s committee said. 

Chinese drivers will undergo medical examination before customs clearance. They then have to take the containers to be quarantined at the border gate parking lot and immediately return to China.

China is the largest market for Vietnamese agriculture, forestry and seafood products, accounting for 27.8 percent of the sectors’ exports of almost $8.5 billion last year.