HO CHI MINH CITY (UCAN): The dioceses of Da Nang and Kontum in Vietnam cancelled planned ceremonies to mark the feast of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1 as dozens of cities and provinces, including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, were called on to suspend non-essential services and festivals, make health declarations, conduct contact tracing and place suspected infected people in quarantine in an effort to curb a surge in Covid-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infections.
At the time of reporting, 36 new community-transmitted cases were found in Da Nang, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Ha Nam, Hung Yen and Vinh Phuc, this following the first one which was detected on April 29 after the country had recorded no community infections for over a month.
Le Trung Chinh, chairperson of the People’s Committee of Da Nang, ordered all cultural and religious activities, sporting events and entertainment venues to be suspended starting on May 4 to contain the pandemic.
Le asked theatrers, massage parlours, health spas, gaming cafés, bars, discos, casinos, karaoke bars, night markets and other unnecessary services to shut. Funerals, weddings and other social gatherings were restricted to an attendance of less than 30.
He said local day care centers are closed while schools should hold online lessons. He also asked prime minister, Pham Minh Chinh, to allow the city not to receive flights from abroad so that it could focus all its resourcees on preventing the outbreak.
Nguyen Thanh Phong, head of the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, ordered local authorities to heavily fine any individuals who fail to give their health declarations or offer untrue declarations. Officials from quarantine centres must be responsible for community infections.
Experts have been concerned that the Vietnam faces a high risks of infection spread as a lot of people crowded tourist destinations across the country during the four-day national holiday from April 30 to May 3.
