Bắc Giang bus station has stopped all transport activities. — VNA/VNS Photo

BẮC GIANG — The northern province of Bắc Giang's Department of Transport stopped all passenger transport in the province from midnight on Friday due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The move includes both inter-provincial passenger buses and intra-provincial passenger vehicles, except for vehicles serving pandemic prevention and other under tasks of the local authorities.

The move will ban inter-provincial passenger buses from passing through the province or from stopping to pick up or drop off passengers.

All operations of river-crossing ferry terminals, bus stations and rest-stops in the province are also temporarily banned.

The provincial Traffic Police Department and police force of districts and cities were asked to strengthen patrols, and strictly handle those who do not comply with the regulations.

The provincial Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control has asked local people to follow pandemic prevention and control regulations at the highest level to combat the risk of community infection.

Each citizen should monitor their health daily, measure their own body temperature, and make a health declaration when someone in their family shows signs of illness, flu, fever, cough, sore throat, respiratory infection or symptoms of other diseases.

Bắc Giang Province is the current epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic in Việt Nam.

Since the province's first SARS-Cov-2 infection of the ongoing outbreak was confirmed on May 8, as of noon on Friday it had recorded 778 COVID-19 cases.

The province has three COVID-19 outbreaks, of which two are still complex, the one in Vân Trung Industrial Park (with 278 cases, most of them workers of Shin Young Company), the other in Quang Châu Industrial Park (390 cases, mainly workers of Hosiden Vietnam Co., Ltd).

The outbreak in Phương Sơn Commune, Lục Nam District with six cases now is under control and is unlikely to spread to the community.

The provincial People's Committee forecasts that in the coming days, the number of cases in the province will increase, but it is less likely to spike compared to previous days because large outbreaks have been localised and isolated. — VNS