The Labour Federation in HCM City’s Gò Vấp District provides daily necessities to workers who face difficulties amid the ongoing stringent distancing mandate. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Vũ

HCM CITY — Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính has instructed ministries and local administrations around the country to create favourable conditions for local people who went to HCM City, Cần Thơ and southern provinces for work and other reasons to return home since the COVID-19 outbreak remains unpredictable.

Provinces and cities should streamline their administrative processes to enable this, and ensure transportation but also safety, he said.  

Following his instructions, many central provinces have prepared vehicles and facilities to welcome their people return from HCM City, Cần Thơ and southern provinces.

Quảng Nam Province has assigned its departments of Health and Transport and other agencies to help people returning from HCM City return safely.

They are now working with the Quảng Nam Fellow- Countrymen Association in HCM City to register people who want to return home, and hundreds have registered.

They will dispatch vehicles with health workers to HCM City to pick them up or hire vehicles in the city.  

The province has also contacted with the Quảng Nam fellow-countrymen associations in Bình Dương, Bình Phước, Đồng Nai, and other southern provinces.

Thừa Thiên- Huế Province plans to provide free train tickets to 300 of its people in HCM City between July 20 and 25, with priority given to seniors, children, pregnant women, freelance workers, people who lost jobs, students, and those who were visiting and got stuck.

It will test and quarantine them for free.  

People can register to return on the Hue-S app.  

The first of several buses to bring 300 people from HCM City will leave Đà Nẵng City on July 19. They are required to furnish negative test results and will stay in quarantine facilities for 21 days on return.

HCM City COVID outbreak

Speaking at a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam on Saturday (July 17), Nguyễn Thành Phong, chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee, said 20,800 COVID patients are being treated, 306 with ventilators and eight using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

The main focus is on treating severe cases to ensure no one dies, he said.

With the rising incidence, the city is building one more hospital in Thủ Đức City to treat severe cases in addition to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases and Chợ Rẫy Hospital, he said.

The Ministry of Defence has also approved the use of the city’s Military Hospital 175 to treat severe cases.  

Two more field hospitals are also under construction in districts 7 and Bình Chánh. — VNS