Homeless people in HCM City are given COVID-19 tests and vaccinated. Photo: laodong.vn

HCM CITY — HCM City has prepared 1.8 million social welfare packages so far for the homeless and poor.

Each free package, valued at VNĐ300,000, includes rice, vegetables, cooking oil and spices for one week.

Out of 1.8 million packages, the city has sent 492,076 packages to localities to support people in need.

The city will continue to mobilize resources to prepare an additional 2 million social welfare packages as planned.

On August 25, the city gathered around 300 homeless people to send them to shelters.

District 4 gathered 116 homeless people living along Võ Văn Kiệt Street and beneath Móng and Calmette bridges and sent them to shelters.

Eleven of them tested positive on their first COVID test, the rest were vaccinated.

Đỗ Thị Trúc Mai, deputy chairwoman of District 4 People Committee said that the district would make sure all homeless people in District 4 get vaccinated.

Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam, head of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, instructed the city on Monday to gather and test homeless people.

At shelters, they will be tested for COVID-19, and if positive, they will be sent to quarantine facilities, and if not, will be assigned to shelters for care and get vaccinated. 

During the two-week stay-at-home period, district authorities will speed up COVID-19 testing for people in the red (extremely high-risk) and orange (high-risk) zones.

The city’s Department of Health is working with districts to set up mobile vaccination teams in the red and orange zones. People living in these areas will go to their nearest mobile unit for vaccinations.

The plan aims to separate positive cases from the community, and control the outbreak as soon as possible.

The city is also speeding ​​up its vaccination schedule.

The city has classified all 312 communes and wards into three groups: green zone (free of COVID cases), orange zone (high-risk) and red zone (extremely high-risk). The goal is to maintain and expand the green zones while isolating and reducing risks in red and orange zones. VNS