Vietnam will stop issuing visas for Chinese tourists, the government said on Thursday, after the Southeast Asian country detected three new cases of coronavirus.
“Cross-border trade between Vietnam and China is not encouraged at the moment.
“The outbreak is spreading rapidly, and in a serious manner,” the government said in a statement.
According to Vietnamese government statistics, Chinese tourists accounted for one-third of tourists visiting Vietnam in 2019, NAN reports.
In 2019, Vietnam’s health ministry said two Chinese citizens in Vietnam had tested positive for coronavirus, however, one has since recovered.
Countries began isolating hundreds of citizens evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan to stop the spread of an epidemic that has killed 170 people as concerns about the impact on the world’s second-biggest economy rattled markets.
Vietnam’s health ministry said that the three latest victims of the virus had all recently returned from Wuhan, where the virus first emerged.
“Two of the three patients are being treated in the capital Hanoi.
“Another is receiving treatment in the Northern Province of Thanh Hoa, 160 km (100 miles) from Hanoi, the report said.
“Most of the border gates between Vietnam and China in the northern province of Lang Son have halted imports and exports of goods until Feb. 9,’’ the state-run Vietnam News Agency (VNA) said.
The coronavirus outbreak has stoked a wave of anti-China sentiments around the globe, from shops barring entry to Chinese tourists, online vitriol mocking the country’s exotic meat trade and surprise health checks on foreign workers.
DAILY POST recalls that the new coronavirus, which originated in China recently, found its way to the shores of the United States
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), confirmed the development in a statement on its website on Tuesday.
It said the virus had been diagnosed in a traveler, who arrived in Washington on Jan. 15 from the Chinese city of Wuhan, where it broke out in December.
At least, six people are reported to have died from the virus, and almost 300 others infected in China
