Vietnam suspends visa-free travel for 8 European countries over coronavirus concerns

[March 09, 2020]  HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam on Monday decided to temporarily suspend visa-free travel for citizens from eight European countries amid growing concern over the coronavirus epidemic, its government said.

The temporary suspension applied to citizens of Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Spain, the government said in a news release on its website.

The move comes after the Southeast Asian country recorded an additional 14 cases over the weekend, of whom 11 were in patients who had traveled from Europe.

The government said it would consider the same measure to countries that have had more than 500 total infection cases or more than 50 cases reported in a day.

In all Vietnam has 30 confirmed cases of the disease caused by the virus, 100 suspected cases under quarantine and 16 cases of patients who have recovered, its health ministry said.

The country earlier halted visa-free travel for Italian and South Korean over the virus concern.

(Reporting by Phuong Nguyen; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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