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Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi is considering easing social distancing requirements after September 15 and 21, depending on risk classifications of different areas.
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The city injects almost 1 million vaccine shots in two days as the capital city is ramping up inoculation efforts.
The Hanoi Standing Party Committee said at a meeting on Monday that, the city will decide a plan to relax social distancing rules for a number of services and Covid prevention measures after the days.
Khong Minh Tuan, deputy director of the Hanoi Center for Disease Control (CDC), said the Covid situation in the capital is “basically under control” and the number of Covid-19 cases in the community has tended to decrease in recent days.
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Tuan said after Hanoi finishes testing its entire population, if the number of cases in the community continues to decrease as it is doing now, the CDC will propose the relaxation of social distancing measures, only locking down certain areas with high numbers of cases.
“It is not possible to reduce the number of high-risk areas in the immediate future. However, the city can impose social distance measures at different levels. High risk districts and wards will still need to be under lockdown before the restrictions are gradually lifted,” he said.
In its efforts to put the coronavirus situation under control by September 15, the city has been carrying out large-scale testing and administering first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine for people aged 18 and over.
Almost one million adults were vaccinated against COVID-19 in Hanoi over the weekend as the capital city is ramping up inoculation efforts, according to the city’s Health Department. The department said 411,000 injections were administered on Saturday and 537,828 on Sunday.
This was the highest number of people vaccinated since the city began its push to inoculate all adults, and was almost eight times higher than most injections given each day last month, Vietnam News Agency reported.
As of Monday more than 4.7 million people had been vaccinated. Of these, more than 400,000 have got two shots, according to the Hanoi Department of Health.
Starting September 6, Hanoi has enforced strict lockdown under Directive 16 in 10 districts and partly in five others.
Directive 16, considered the most stringent, requires people to stay at home and not go out unless it for food and other emergencies.
The remaining districts are operating under Directive 15. This requires suspension of social events, bans gatherings of 20 people or more in one place and of 10 people or more outside workplaces, schools and hospitals. A minimum distance of two meters between people in public places should be ensured, it orders.
The capital city has recorded 4,053 Covid-19 cases in the fourth wave starting late April, with 41 added Monday, VNExpress reported.
