Vietnam to strictly sanction people disobeying anti-pandemic rules

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has agreed that there should be realistic sanctions imposed on people who violate regulations on safety in the pandemic time.

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. Photo: VGP

Among a host of precautionary measures, some punishments will be pondered to apply for people who don’t wear face masks in public and a part of those who don’t install Bluezone – the local app that helps detect people at high risk of exposure to Covid-19 infection.

Statistics by the Ministry of Information and Communications, there have about 21 million people installed Bluezone. Around 1,500 suspected cases have been detected via this app.

The new move was mentioned at a meeting on Friday chaired by the PM.

PM Phuc said Vietnam is aware of the long-term battle against the virus and making efforts to coexist with the pandemic until medicine and vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 work.

For that reason, all levels from the central government to grassroots ones need to pursue the dual goals that include both combating with the disease and developing economy.

With limited resources, Vietnam needs to maintain basic socio-economic activities to ease people’s burden while strict protective measures must be taken at the same time.

He said the government will soon adjust policies to timely support unemployed and furloughed people.

Vietnam requires wearing face masks in public since mid-March. Photo: Reuteurs

Containing the virus

Phuc said that coronavirus outbreaks in Vietnam are being contained, including the situation in the hot spots of Danang and Quang Nam.

This second wave of Covid-19 has prompted Vietnam to make quick decisions on coping with the disease, instant and widespread testing, launch of Bluezone, and people’s support, the PM said.

Two days earlier, Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said the country is holding down coronavirus outbreaks in Danang, the tourism city where locally-transmitted infections were detected in the last week of July.

Mr. Long said the infections in both Danang and the neighboring province of Quang Nam were decreasing recently.

The initial containment is attributed to quick and thorough response to the pandemic with the support of leading doctors and health profesionals in the battle against Covid-19 in Danang.

Since the detection of the community transmission, the number of locally-transmitted cases reaches more than 500 out of 1,009 infections so far. The country has reported dead 25 deaths.