Streets of Đà Nẵng City devoid of traffic during strict social distancing. — VNA/VNS Photo Trần Lê Lâm

ĐÀ NẴNG — The central city of Đà Nẵng will reopen traditional markets, online shopping and take-away services in ‘green zones’, while QR codes will be given to local residents so they can travel to work, hospitals and stores from Sunday (September 5).

Residents in 14 ‘green’ wards and living areas are allowed to exercise from 5 to 7am, and one member of a family can go to the market every five days in the ‘green zone’ area only. Meanwhile, people in ‘risk zones’, marked in yellow, can go out for medicine or first aid, but those in ‘red’ or ‘very high risk’ areas will be in lockdown with delivery services provided by community teams.

The city’s people’s committee said frontline forces and local residents have made great efforts during a 20-day lockdown, reducing infection cases in the community from an average of 150 or 200 to 47 per day as of Saturday.

It said 2,400 sources of coronavirus infections (F0) had been cleared in the three-week lockdown with five mass testing programmes.

The city said 480 COVID-19 patients had been released from hospitals on three days from September 3-5, meaning the number of patients recovering from coronavirus reached 980 in a month (from August 25 to September 5).

Doctors from Hòa Vang field hospital said a mother with COVID-19 gave birth to a boy on August 27, and the mother and son left the hospital on Sunday after nine days of treatment. They will be quarantined at home for two more weeks with medical checks from the local health centre.

It said 180,000 people, including 70,000 workers, had received the first shot, while 55,000 were fully vaccinated.

Local people can post online health declarations or suspected coronavirus symptoms for home testing.

In three days between September 2-4, 550 residents living in ‘very high risk’ areas in Thanh Khê District had been taken to ‘safe’ quarantine sites for isolation.

The city will provide VNĐ113 billion (US$4.9 million) in financial aid to support 368,000 households including 66,000 migrant workers and students. The city had allocated the first aid package of VNĐ71 billion to 142,000 households last month.

More than 280,000 students in the city will join online learning programmes in the two first weeks of the new school year from Monday (September 6). The city will exempt school fees in the 2020-21 school term for all students with coronavirus.

The city also set up a hotline to support foreigners working and living in Đà Nẵng during the lockdown and social distancing orders from late August. Vice director of the city’s foreign affairs department, Nguyễn Thúy Anh said the hotline had received at least 180 phone calls and emails. Up to 4,800 foreigners are living mainly in Ngũ Hành Sơn and Sơn Trà districts.

She said five hotlines are available for foreigners in English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese in Sơn Trà, Ngũ Hành Sơn, Hải Châu, Cẩm Lệ and Liên Chiểu districts.

She said foreigners could contact the phone numbers and email for assistance. VNS