The first flight from South Korea to Vietnam carrying 229 passengers from Incheon (South Korea) touched down at Van Don International Airport in the northeast of Vietnam on 1st March 2020. 

Vietnam Civil Aviation Authority announced that moving forward all the flights from South Korea will land at Van Don International Airport. The International Airport of Noi Bai in Hanoi and the International Airport of Tan Son Nhat, Ho Chi Minh City, will stop receiving flights from South Korea from 1st March 2020 onwards.

The following days, two to three flights flew from South Korea each day to the northeast of Vietnam.

Van Don International Airport is one of only three Vietnamese airports that have been specifically authorized by the government to receive flights from the COVID-19 epicenter areas.

The airport located in Quang Ninh Province, home to the world-famous Halong Bay, already had two flights with the assistance of government-supported operations to evacuate Vietnamese people who were living near Beijing and Wuhan from China on 1 February and 10 February.

Can Tho International Airport in Can Tho town (southwest of Vietnam) and Phu-Cat International Airport in Binh Dinh province (center of Vietnam) also serve as two other airports that have been able to receive flights from the affected areas.

On receiving both flights from South Korea, the Van Don International Airport representative observed that several flights from the COVID-19 area had now been accepted.

"The process of receiving each of these flights strictly complies with all regulations regarding international quarantine, which is highly appreciated by the public," said the representative.

Similar procedures were performed at the other two airports in Can Tho city and Binh Dinh Province for all flights coming from areas considered to be epicenters for the COVID-19 epidemic.

Despite its proximity to countries on the frontlines of the outbreak, the Vietnamese authorities announced that the situation in Vietnam has been under control and there have been no deaths, despite the growing number of cases and new varieties of COVID-19, worldwide.

Vietnam was excluded from a list of places vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19 by the U.S. Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC), which noted the concerted intervention of Vietnam to tackle the epidemic. In March, the CDC will also be sending a delegation to strengthen the US-Vietnam medical cooperation.