Guiding the Law on infectious disease prevention and control regarding the border health quarantine

28/06/2018
On June 25, 2018, the Government promulgates Decree 89/2018/NĐ-CP providing guidelines for implementation of the Law on infectious disease prevention and control regarding the border health quarantine.
The Decree deals with the collection of information, health declaration, health inspection and control for people and objects, including conveyances entering, leaving and transiting Vietnam, cargo imported, exported or in transit in Vietnam, corpses, bones (including body ash), microorganism sample, biological products, tissues and human body organs being transported across the border between Vietnam and other countries; border control measures for preventing the spread of infectious diseases; border health quarantine units and responsibility for border health quarantine.
Regarding to human quarantine, any persons enter, leave or transit through Vietnam are required to complete declaration of health in the following cases: There is a decision on announcement or notice of infectious diseases granted by a competent authority; There is a warning of group-A infectious diseases, infectious diseases emerging or broken out, or warning of spreading of infectious diseases given by foreign and international health agencies and organizations.
Declaration of health may be terminated in the following cases: There is a decision on announcement or notice of absolute control of infectious diseases granted by a competent authority; There is a notification of termination of warning of group-A infectious diseases, infectious diseases emerging or broken out, or warning of spreading of infectious diseases given by foreign and international health agencies and organizations.
A notification of declaration of health contains: Name of infectious diseases requiring the declaration of health; Entities subject to compulsory declaration of health; and  time of application of declaration of health. A notification of termination of imposition of health declaration measure contains: name of infectious diseases requiring termination of the declaration of health and time of termination of declaration of health.
The declaration of health is made in two languages, Vietnamese and English, and also other languages depending on the world outbreak of infectious diseases according to the Ministry of Health's guidance.
Entities subject to the physical inspection are persons who are suspected of suffering from or carrying pathogens of any communicable diseases as prescribed above.
Based on the actual state of the inspected person, the health quarantine officer shall perform one of the followings: Interviewing and obtaining medical history; Clinical examination; Evaluating efficiency of imposed health control measures; Taking sampling if a person is suspected of suffering a group-A infectious disease, or a disease emerging or breaking-out as announced by the Ministry of Health.
If the inspection results indicate that the inspected person displays signs of carrying a communicable disease or pathogens of any group-A infectious diseases, the health quarantine officer shall implement health control measures. If the inspected person is not subject to the case in Point a of this Clause, the health quarantine officer shall give a verification on his/her declaration of health and then complete health quarantine process. Immigration control units at border checkpoints shall check the verification given by health quarantine officers on declaration of health forms when receiving the notification of imposition of health declaration measures from the Ministry of Health. If a person who is subject to a compulsory declaration of health as prescribed herein fails to obtain a verification by a competent health quarantine officer on the declaration of health, the immigration control units must request such person to complete the declaration of health before carrying out procedures for entry into, exit from or transit through Vietnam. The physical inspection of a person must be finished within 02 hours (excluding wait for test results).
Chairman of the People’s Committee of the province where a border checkpoint is located will take charge of stipulating functions, duties and powers of the border health quarantine unit located in such province according to the guidance of the Ministry of Health.
The location of a border health quarantine unit in the system for supervising and inspecting subjects of border health quarantine is as follow: With regard to land border checkpoints, the location of a border health quarantine unit shall be determined in accordance with regulations in Article 14 of the Government's Decree No. 112/2014/ND-CP dated November 21, 2014; With regard to waterway, airway and railway checkpoints, a border health quarantine unit must be located first in the system for supervising and inspecting subjects of border health quarantine.
The persons entering, exiting or transiting, conveyance owners and cargo owners are responsible for: Proactively provide declaration of their normal health status for border health quarantine units at the places of entry, exit or transit; Provide complete declaration of health forms, and assume responsibility for declared information as regulated herein; do not provide or use forged declaration of health forms. Comply with health inspection/ control measures carried out border health quarantine units in accordance with regulations herein; Pay health quarantine service fees as regulated.
This Decree comes into force from August 10, 2018. The Government’s Decree No. 103/2010/ND-CP dated October 01, 2010 providing guidelines for implementation of the Law on infectious disease prevention and control regarding the border health quarantine will be null and void from the date of entry into force of this Decree.