Vietnam’s major cities may impose stricter Covid-19 laws due to outbreak

The major cities of Vietnam might possibly tighten Covid-19 restrictions to curb the spread of infection as confirmed cases keep on rising, reaching over 6,000 cases in seven days.

Vietnam is currently facing an increase of Covid-19 daily positive cases since the emergence of the outbreak in April.

On Wednesday, the country recorded a total of 6,559 new Covid-19 infections adding to the total number of over 120,000 cases since the pandemic started. Official data shows that about 450,000 out of the 98 million of the country’s population have been fully vaccinated.

The Vietnam authorities has enforced strict Covid-19 restrictions in about a third of the country, including Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

In a government statement, city chairman Chu Ngoc Anh said that Hanoi may implement stricter measures to be able to contain the virus especially in high-risk areas.

According to Ho Chi Minh City authorities, as the daily cases keep rising, they might extend the period of social distancing by one or two weeks after Aug. 1.

The National Assembly, which is Vietnam’s lawmaking body had come up with a decision to shorten Hanoi sessions by three days to end on Wednesday.

According to witnesses, the meeting venue was temporarily isolated by the officials as well as the test journalists who were present at the closing ceremony after learning about the suspected Covid-19 case.

The recent outbreak has called for the government to act immediately in obtaining Covid-19 vaccine supplies as well as in speeding up its vaccination of its population.

More than 14 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have arrived in Vietnam coming from donations, from Covax and from its own government. A post linked to a British government statement on the donation of 9 million vaccines said the United Kingdom will donate 415,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Vietnam.