A household in HCM City’s District 3 receives essential goods from the local Việt Nam Fatherland Front Committee unit in July. HCM City plans to continue providing relief to people whose livelihoods have been snatched by COVID-19. – VNA Photo Thanh Vũ

HCM CITY – HCM City will launch more relief packages for people whose incomes are affected by COVID-19 and the stringent restrictions to curb it, and make them more accessible, Võ Văn Hoan, deputy chairman of its People’s Committee, has said.

In a live-streamed session with the public on September 1, he said around a million self-employed people and 1.3 million struggling households are each set to receive VNĐ1.5 million (US$65.7) in cash and kind to tide over the crisis.

He said the disbursement has been slow due to the rising number of struggling people signing up for the assistance.

Local authorities have been instructed to quickly dispense the aid, completing it before September 6, he said.

More relief packages would be launched, and “the city’s packages will cover all of its struggling locals,” he said.

They would also take into account the number of members in each household and those who had been left out of earlier lists, he said.

People can apply for relief on a recently launched mobile app called ‘An Sinh’ (Social relief) on Google Play.

Hoan said the city is preparing for various scenarios after September 15. In the most positive, which sees it getting the pandemic under complete control, it would offer relief for up to four months to businesses and individuals, he said.

Unemployed people who wish to return to their home towns should instead try to remain back to reduce risk of spreading the infection, and the city would do its best to support them, he said.

It is also encouraging people providing rental accommodation to reduce rents to help poor tenants, he said.

It plans to provide two million free food and foodstuff packages to struggling people.

It has sought from the Government nearly VNĐ28 trillion and 142,200 tonnes of rice for its relief efforts.

The country's COVID has recorded over 226,000 cases since late April when the fourth wave began.

Millions have lost jobs or had their incomes greatly reduced. – VNS