Gov’t chief solicits public understanding of decision to impose social distancing in HCMC

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (2nd, left) and Secretary of the HCMC Municipal Party Committee Nguyen Van Nen (3rd, left) inspect resettlement apartments which will be transformed into a field hospital for COVID-19 treatment in An Khanh ward, HCMC, July 11, 2021. Photo: VGP

     >>> People entering or leaving HCMC must show negative SARS-CoV-2 test result

The economic hub started to impose social distancing under the Government’s Directive No. 15 from May 31.

However, the COVID-19 situation in HCMC remains dire with three-digit infection rate over the past days, prompting the municipal authorities to have decided to impose stricter social distancing rules under the Government’s Directive No. 16 for another 15 days, starting from July 9.

Under Directive No. 16, only factories, businesses and service establishments producing and providing essential goods and services are allowed to open and asked to ensure workers follow strict health guidelines. 

All people are requested to stay at home and only go out in case of emergencies, buying food or medicine, or going to work at factories and essential services that are not closed down or halt operations. 

If leaving home, people are to keep a minimum distance of two meters from each other. Any gathering of more than two people in public outside of offices, schools and hospitals is banned.

Pham also asked the city to provide assistance to unemployed or homeless people and set up centers and hotlines to help those in need.

Regarding vaccines, PM Pham said the Government will allocate 25 percent of two million COVID-19 vaccine doses that would be delivered to Viet Nam from now to the end of July to HCMC.

As of 7:30 pm on July 11, the city’s COVID-19 tally rose to 13,012, accounting for nearly 50 percent of the country’s total cases recorded since late April when the fourth wave of COVID-19 resurgence began.

The city has planned to build eight field hospitals for COVID-19 treatment with 29,730 beds in a bid to prepare for the scenario of 50,000 infection cases./.

By Quang Minh