Vietjet will stop all flights to and from China starting Saturday to try and limit the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
The budget airline said in a statement Friday that it had prepared this plan earlier, and will cooperate with Vietnamese authorities and the World Health Organization (WHO) in taking steps to prevent the spread of the nCoV among its crew members and passengers.
Vietjet is the first Vietnamese airline to stop China flights. At the time of writing, Vietnam Airlines and Jetstar Pacific were still operating flights to China.
Globally, British Airways was the first airline to suspend all direct flights to and from China. Other carriers such as U.S.-based United Airlines and Indonesia-based Lion Air have suspended flights to certain Chinese cities.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam Wednesday ordered local airlines to stop all flights between Vietnam and infected locations in China.
The Ministry of Health confirmed Thursday that three Vietnamese have tested positive for the nCoV. One is being treated at the Thanh Hoa General Hospital in the eponymous central province and the others at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi.
As of Friday, there were five confirmed cases of infection in Vietnam. The first cases of nCoV infection detected in the country were a Chinese father and son duo. The son has recovered.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday declared a global health emergency as the death toll reached 213, all of them in China.
