Ho Chi Minh City looking ahead with lockdown easing

September 21, 2021 | 11:05

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Vietnam is step-by-step controlling the COVID-19 outbreaks and is starting to consider conditional easing of restrictions as the country shifts its focus to adapting to and living with the pandemic.

Testing has been ramped up in the major cities

Ho Chi Minh City’s District 7 as well as Can Gio and Cu Chi last week became the first in the southern hub to start reopening while other districts have to be more cautious.

Such districts are building up specific criteria on issuing a COVID-19 green certificate for fully vaccinated people, as well as for those who have recovered from the coronavirus within the last six months.

The authorities also apply strict and detailed rules for factories and shops to be reopened. The most basic conditions for reopening is featuring no F0 cases, all employees being injected with the first vaccination, and with at least 30 per cent of them fully vaccinated and located in a green zone.

In District 7 itself, on the first day of easing on September 15 there were only 150 household businesses allowed to reopen, but the streets were crowded with vehicles and a lot of normal services and daily activities seemed to gradually reappear.

Meanwhile, Hanoi has gone through more than 50 days of social distancing and the entire city has now got its outbreak mostly under control, so it is considering easing social distancing requirements after September 21, depending on risk classifications of different areas. Last week some districts were allowed to enjoy a reopening of takeaway services before 9pm each day.

Despite the government’s move to reopen and revive the economy after months of stringent restrictions, officials said it will remain crucially important to have a robust risk classification setup before conditional easing of restrictions.