Vietnam deploys troops to enforce COVID lockdown in largest city

HANOI, Aug.23 (Reuters) – Vietnam deployed soldiers on Monday to help impose a strict COVID lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City, its largest urban area and the current epicenter of its worst coronavirus outbreak to date .

Vietnam put movement restrictions in Ho Chi Minh City in early July, but announced its toughest restrictions last week as infections continued to rise. Authorities said the enforcement of recent restrictions has not been tight enough.

After containing COVID-19 for much of last year, Vietnam has recorded 358,456 infections and at least 8,666 deaths. Ho Chi Minh City has recorded more than 180,000 infections – half the country’s total – and 7,010 deaths, or about 80% of the country’s deaths, according to the health ministry.

Most of these cases have been recorded in Ho Chi Minh City and surrounding industrial provinces, where the delta variant of the virus has skyrocketed numbers since late April.

The government said on Friday that a stricter lockdown would begin on Monday, prohibiting people from leaving their homes, even for food, and said the military would step in to help.

The ad, later amended so that residents in some areas could still buy food, was later reduced to a total ban, sparking confusion and panic shopping at supermarkets in the city over the weekend. -end. Read more

Witnesses said soldiers were delivering food to town residents on Monday, and footage released by state media showed armed soldiers occupying checkpoints and checking documents.

In recent weeks, Vietnam has sent 14,600 additional doctors and nurses to the city and its neighboring provinces to support its overwhelmed medical system, the ministry said.

Patients with mild or no symptoms were advised to self-isolate at home.

The government said on Friday it would send 130,000 tonnes of rice from state stocks to Ho Chi Minh City and 23 other cities and provinces. Residents of the city’s Phu Nhuan and Go Vap districts told Reuters they had received packages of rice, meat, fish and vegetables from the army.

Vietnam received two shipments of 501,600 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from Poland and 200,000 doses of Sinopharm from China on Monday, the government said.

In total, the country has obtained more than 23 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, but only 1.8% of its 98 million people have been fully vaccinated – one of the lowest rates in the region.

Writing by James Pearson; Editing by Ed Davies, Ana Nicolaci da Costa and Bernadette Baum

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