In a detailed communication Wednesday, he also called for a ban on non-essential events that gather crowds. At events that need to be organized, he said all participants must wear masks, maintain a social distance and have their temperature checked, and the site must be disinfected.

For events that involve people coming from abroad, especially high-risk countries, organizers must first consult health authorities, the communication said.

Flights carrying diplomats, experts, investors, skilled workers, and their families to Vietnam and Vietnamese guest workers abroad would continue to operate, but airlines, crews and passengers must scrupulously follow pandemic prevention rules, it said.

Vietnam agencies abroad should only allow the repatriation of those who urgently need to return home, even for the Lunar New Year, or Tet, the country’s biggest holiday, which falls in February, it warned.

The list of those to be repatriated must be approved by the public security and transport ministries, it said.

"Everyone entering Vietnam from abroad must be quarantined for 14 days."

The PM called on health authorities to trace and test more aggressively and rapidly people who went to places visited by Covid-19 patients to ensure safety for major upcoming events, especially the 13th National Party Congress to be held in January.

Civil defense personnel bring rice aided by local authorities to an isolated neighborhood
in HCMC's District 6 after a man living there was confirmed a Covid-19 patient,
December 1, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Dinh Van.

On Monday the 88-day streak without local transmission was broken after an English language teacher tested positive for the new coronavirus after contracting it from a friend, a flight attendant working for Vietnam Airlines.

The flight attendant, 28, contracted the virus at a quarantine facility run by the airline and became patient number 1342 on November 29.

The teacher, "patient 1347," 32, went on to infect two others, an infant nephew and a 28-year-old student.

The neighborhood where he lives has been locked down for 14 days starting on Tuesday.

When there was a wave of community-transmitted infections earlier this year, the nation entered around three weeks of social distancing period in April.

But during another outbreak in late July and August, the government did not resort to large-scale social restrictions, but only applied them at certain areas considered Covid-19 hotspots.

The nation has had 1,358 cases of Covid-19 so far, with 1,201 people recovering and 35 others dying.