The move comes amid the rapid spread of the Covid-19 virus in South Korea.

VnExpress reports that Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Saigon and Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi have stopped receiving passenger flights from the Northeast Asian nation for an indefinite period of time.

Accordingly, flights which had been scheduled to arrive in Hanoi will be re-routed to Van Don Airport in Quang Ninh Province, while flights intended for Saigon will be sent to Can Tho Airport in the Mekong Delta.

Cargo flights will still be allowed at Tan Son Nhat and Noi Bai, which is key for the supply chain of Samsung, Vietnam's largest single foreign investor. At the time of writing, South Korea had 4,212 confirmed Covid-19 cases.

On Saturday, an Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul to Hanoi turned around when it was informed mid-flight that it would have to land at Van Don instead of Noi Bai.

Zingreports that Can Tho Airport is expected to receive three flights from South Korea with roughly 550 passengers on board today, March 2. Flights from outside of the country's epidemic regions will be allowed to go through customs normally, while all passengers will have their temperature checked before being taken to quarantine.

Any passenger exhibiting symptoms such as coughing or a fever will be taken to a hospital. All Vietnamese citizens arriving from South Korea are required to undergo 14 days in quarantine.

Up north, Zing adds in another story, Van Don received over 400 passengers on two flights which arrived from South Korea yesterday, March 1. All of the passengers were then transferred to a designated quarantine area.

[Photo via Flickr user Byeangel]