Hanoi to resume dine-in services, public transport on Oct 14

Hanoi will resume from Oct 14 after three months lots of activities namely dine-in services, taxi, public transport, hospitality, group activities in the park and in public, among others.

A takeaway restaurant in Hanoi in mid-September. Photo: Ngoc Tu/ The Hanoi Times

Dining and lodging facilities work with 50% of capacity while service providers need to be double dosed and customers are required to check with QR Code.

Under the document signed on Oct 13 by Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Chu Ngoc Anh, State agencies and businesses will resume operations as normal from Oct 14 with imposing safety measures themselves.

In addition, the 5K (masking – disinfection – distance – no gathering – and medical declaration) message will be maintained together with other precautionary measures.  

The document mentioned neither maintaining nor removing 22 checkpoints at the entrance. News on when children go back to school was not included.

However, the local government required the education sector to enforce safety measures and work with the health sector to vaccinate children as soon as possible.

So far, about 98% of its adults have got the first jabs, and more than 50% of them double dosed. Hanoi is one of few localities having high vaccination rates. Its vaccine coverage is just behind Ho Chi Minh City, the most affected area by Covid-19.     

Between July and September, Hanoi imposed lockdown due to community transmission, however, its infections never went high, around 100/day for months. After two months of restrictions, the city has been opened to essential services since September 21.

Since then, it has step by step reopened the economy. One of the remarkable reopening plans is resuming air travel that activated on Oct 10 with return flights to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and Danang with one return flight per day on one route.

In addition, it resumed both intercity and railway on Oct 13 with passenger trains to HCMC and Haiphong.

Over the past 10 days, Hanoi’s infections varied around 10 per day.

Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son (R) and Polish Ambassador to Vietnam Wojciech Gerwel at a meeting in Hanoi on Oct 13. Photo: MoFA

Pushing up vaccination

Vietnam has received 88 million Covid-19 vaccine doses, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh told his constituents in the southern city of Can Tho City on October 13.

"Health authorities will license another 30 million doses in the time to come," Chinh said.

As of Oct 13, more than 57 million doses have been administered, including nearly 17 million people fully inoculated. It means that more than 55% of adults get the first jabs.

The pandemic fight in Vietnam over the past months has received great support from its partners who have donated vaccines, drugs, and media equipment.

Poland will donate to Vietnam additional 900,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the news was shared at the meeting today between Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son and Polish Ambassador to Vietnam Wojciech Gerwel. The commitment lifts the total Poland-donated volume to 1.4 million, not to mention medical supplies worth nearly US$4 million.

The US has provided Vietnam with 9.5 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines via both the COVAX Facility and direct delivery.

To improve Vietnam’s vaccine storing capacity, the US Department of Defense gifted Vietnam 111 ultra-low temperature freezers

On Oct 12, the Embassy handed over 77 ultra-low temperature freezers to Vietnam, the first of 111 storage units worth US$1 million that the US Department of Defense offered to the Southeast Asian country.

Thanks to the high vaccination rate, HCMC has curbed the spread of the virus with the daily cases varies around 1,000.

The containment of the virus has enabled the largest city to reopen the economy with the resumption of ride-hailing services and wet markets. Thus far, most districts have been open to essential services.

With a sharp fall in the infections and a rise in the number of recovered patients, soldiers started withdrawing from the HCMC until Oct 15 after nearly two months of supporting the pandemic fight there.

Meanwhile, military medics will stay in the city to assist the treatment of Covid-19 patients until the end of November. Soldiers and military medics came to the city to take care of Covid-19 patients, provide food to people in need, offer shopping services to residents, present at Covid checkpoints, and take responsibility for the funeral of the Covid-caused deceased.

According to HCMC authorities, armed forces, including policemen and police doctors, have contributed significantly to the city’s pandemic fight. Their presence has made the enforcement of precautionary measures stronger and their role means a lot in taking care of Covid-19 patients and their families.  

On Oct 13, Vietnam reported 3,461 Covid-19 infections and 106 deaths, lifting the tally to more than 849,000 and over 20,000, respectively. The figures in Ho Chi Minh were respective 1,162 and 73.

Currently, the country’s active cases are about 62,000.  

Coronavirus cases in Vietnam. Source: MoH. Chart: Minh Vu