Vietnam bans wildlife imports, markets amid new health fears

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

FILE - In this Aug 25, 2019, file photo, a conservationist holds up a Central Vietnamese flowerback box turtle (Bourret's box turtle) at a sanctuary in Cuc Phuong national park in Ninh Binh province, Vietnam. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Thursday signed a directive to ban wildlife imports and closes illegal wildlife markets as a response to the thread of zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh, File)