Major cities in Vietnam consider tightening COVID restrictions as cases continue to rise

HANOI, July 28 (Reuters) – Major Vietnamese cities could extend or tighten movement restrictions to contain the spread of COVID-19 as new daily cases surpassed 6,000 for seven consecutive days, authorities said on Wednesday.

After successfully containing the virus for much of the pandemic, Vietnam has faced record daily outbreaks of infections since an outbreak that emerged in late April.

Vietnam reported 6,559 new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, bringing its total number since the start of the pandemic to more than 120,000. About 450,000 people in the country of 98 million people have been fully vaccinated, according to reports. official data.

The government has imposed strict travel restrictions in about a third of the vast Southeast Asian country, including the Ho Chi Minh City shopping center to the south and the capital Hanoi to the north.

“Hanoi may impose stricter measures in high-risk areas in order to fight the epidemic more fiercely,” the city’s president, Chu Ngoc Anh, said in a government statement.

Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have said the city may need to extend its social distancing period by a week or two after August 1 as infections continue to rise.

Due to the growing epidemic, the National Assembly, the country’s legislative body, has decided to cut a three-day session in Hanoi short and end on Wednesday. Read more

Authorities are rushing to temporarily isolate the meeting location and test journalists who were at the closing ceremony after the discovery of a suspected COVID-19 case, witnesses told Reuters.

The current outbreak has increased pressure on the government to boost its vaccine supply and speed up vaccinations.

Vietnam has received more than 14 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from multiple sources, including donations, the COVAX global vaccine sharing program and its supply.

An article linked to a UK government statement on donating 9 million vaccines said the UK would donate 415,000 doses of AstraZeneca (AZN.L) vaccine to Vietnam.

Editing by Mark Heinrich

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