The Ocean Coatings (Vietnam) Company Limited, located in the Long Thành Industrial Zone, has set up six container offices to offer temporary accommodations for its workers. File photo from vnexpress.vn

HCM CITY — Factories in the southern industrial province of Đồng Nai are creating temporary housing for workers as a way to deal with the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.

Ocean Coatings (Vietnam) Company Limited, located in Long Thành Industrial Zone in Long Thành District, has set up six containers to offer temporary accommodations for its workers.

More than 100 workers at the factory agreed to stay at the factory in the temporary housing from two to three weeks.

Hoàng Thị Minh Nguyệt, the company’s HR Manager, told VnExpress.vn that the rented containers, 30 square metres each in size, are equipped with air conditioners, ventilation fans, lights, windows and doors.

Each container can accommodate 10 people, five working day shifts and five night shifts. Each person has six square metres of usable area.

The company has built new bathrooms and purchased new refrigerators, blankets, pillows and essential items to serve workers. It is also providing each worker three meals a day at a cost of VNĐ150,000 (US$6.45).

Apart from the workers staying at the factory, the company has arranged for some workers to stay at a container office outside the factory.

Some employees are working at home, while others will take time off and be paid a minimum salary.

All workers have been tested for SARS-CoV-2 regularly to prevent infection in the company.

Phạm Văn Cường, deputy head of the Đồng Nai Industrial Zone Authority, said that Shinpoong Daewoo Pharma Co. Ltd in Biên Hòa 2 Industrial Zone and GreenFeed VietNam Corporation in Sông Mây Industrial Zone, among others, were also planning to expand worker accommodations.

The workers will be given COVID-19 tests regularly.

Depending on the size and number of employees, businesses have different plans for working and housing. 
 
Ocean Coatings, for example, employs only a few hundred workers, who could stay at the factory. However, companies with tens of thousands of workers may offer housing to workers living in COVID-hit areas.

The Chang Shin Vietnam Company Limited in Vĩnh Cửu District with more than 40,000 employees, for example, has helped 2,200 workers from HCM City and Bình Dương Province to rent houses near the factory.

The other employees must strictly comply with the Ministry of Health's 5k prevention protocol, and receive testing.

The Taekwang Vina Industrial Joint Stock Company in Biên Hòa 2 Industrial Zone has rented hotels for 500 employees who are from HCM City and Bình Dương Province.

The company with 30,000 workers has asked those who cannot stay in Đồng Nai to work at home or take time off.

Đồng Nai has more than 1.2 million labourers, including 620,000 people working in 32 industrial zones. Many of them are from neighbouring provinces and travel back and forth on the same day.

As the fourth wave has become more complex, the province has asked local businesses to provide accommodations for workers at the factories to prevent the spread of the virus.

On June 14, a company in the Amata Industrial Zone in Biên Hòa City was locked down due to a COVID-19 positive case. Five days later, more than 18,000 workers at the Pousung Vietnam Company Limited in the Bàu Xéo Industrial Zone in Trảng Bom District had to stay at home because of an F1 case (a person who has had contact with an F0, someone who has tested positive). — VNS