The police instruct local people to apply social distancing on Monday in Hòa Bình City. VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Hải

HÀ NỘI — The People’s Committee of Hoà Bình City, Hoà Bình Province, decided to apply social distancing for the whole city with a population of more than 135,000 people from midnight on Monday until further notice.

The move came after the COVID-19 pandemic showed complex developments in recent days.

Under the decision issued on Sunday, all meetings or gatherings of more than 20 people in a room (excluding meetings with voters) are banned.

People in the city were banned from gathering in groups of more than 10 people outside the workplace, schools or hospitals and they were told to keep a minimum distance of 2m among each other in public places, the decision said.

Local people were required to not go to other localities, the decision said.

All activities relating to religious rituals, beliefs, worship, sports and entertainment must be suspended, the decision said.

The city also suspended service providers from operation, except for providers of essential goods. Public transport activities were also limited. Funerals must be held with a minimal number of participants.

Bùi Quang Điệp, chairman of the committee, on Sunday night ordered agencies to quickly trace direct contacts (F1) of patients 3,273 and 3,274 in the city as well as people who contacted F1 cases for testing and quarantining.

On Monday morning, the city recorded two new cases of COVID-19, including a 2-year-old boy. Both of them were direct contacts of patients 3,273 and 3,274.

The residential areas of the four patients have been locked down. The city sprayed disinfectants and carry out pandemic prevention measures in the residence of the patients and surrounding households.

In another movement, the administration of Phúc Thọ District, Hà Nội, decided to lock down Hiệp Thuận Commune between midnight on Monday and May 30 after the commune recorded four cases of COVID-19 on Sunday.

Chairman of the People's Committee of the commune Nguyễn Xuân Tâm was tasked to mobilise forces to bring the pandemic under control in the commune, the district said. 

Việt Nam witnesses the highest number of cases reported on a single day yesterday with 109 local infections among the 112 new cases announced by the health ministry in its 6am and midday reports— VNS