Passenger queue for immigration procedures. (Photo: sggp.org.vn)

Resuming commercial flights is part of the effort to revive the economy while containing the epidemic.

In Japan, people are encouraged to self-quarantine at home rather than at a quarantine center and in other countries travellers quarantined only for 5 days upon arrival. Health experts say if tests are conducted at the airport and the results of the tests are negative twice, the quarantine time can be shortened from 14 to 5 days. Dang Duc Anh, Director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, said Vietnam’s testing strategy should be changed to make this plan possible.

Vietnam is now researching a type of rapid antigen test which provides the result within 90 minutes, said Anh: "In the near future, we will have a new testing strategy. We want to develop rapid antigen testing which can be conducted at airports and other public places to produce accurate results within a short period of time. This will enable us to save time in selecting people for quarantine."

Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long noted that any test can produce wrong results. In order to live safely with the disease, the quarantine and testing plan needs to be thoroughly considered before resuming international commercial flights:

"Some countries like Japan and South Korea have used rapid antigen tests quick anti-agent tests to screen passengers at the airport. But there are still some false positives. Because the disease in these countries poses a high risk, rapid antigen tests must be followed by PCR test for confirmation," said Long.

Resuming international commercial flights is necessary. In addition to strengthened quarantine and testing, however people will need to wear masks, use disinfectants and distancing, avoid crowds, and complete medical declarations in order to prevent a new wave of infection when international flights resume.