~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

Year :      [2003]      [2002]      [2001]      [2000]      [1999]      [1998]      [1997]

Vietnam province bars Chinese tourists over SARS

HANOI - Vietnam's northern Quang Ninh province, home of the Halong Bay tourist attraction, has begun barring Chinese tourists at its land border gates and waterways because of concerns over SARS, officials said on Wednesday.

"The border closure to Chinese tourists is necessary to control the spread of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) but business will be badly hurt," an official at provincial tourism authority Quang Ninh Tourism Service told Reuters. About 170,000 people entered Vietnam from China in the first quarter, the largest number from any other country. The majority entered via 31 land border gates, of which two are in Quang Ninh. The move by local authorities comes ahead of any decision by Hanoi to seal its border with China indefinitely, as had been recommended by the country's health ministry. Worldwide, a total of 236 people have died from SARS, with more than 4,200 infections. Of them, 97 have died in China and five in Vietnam.

The World Health Organisation said on Wednesday that if no new cases emerge by April 30 in Vietnam, the virus will be considered contained. The last SARS case in the country was on April 8. Chinese traders are still allowed in at Quang Ninh, but only after health checks at border checkpoints, border officials said. They also said that Chinese immigration had started to bar Vietnamese tourists from entering China, apparently in a tit-for-tat reaction.

Reuters - April 23, 2003.