HCMC – HCMC must tighten Covid-19 prevention and control measures over people who enter and exit the city amid the complicated developments of the disease, while ensuring the transport of commodities between the city and other localities will not be affected, it was announced at a Covid-19-related online meeting held today, July 5.
Speaking at the meeting, HCMC Vice Chairman Duong Anh Duc said that people who need to enter or leave the city have to follow the Ministry of Health’s regulations in making health declarations and undergoing a Covid-19 test. The city will introduce systems to monitor people subject to taking a Covid-19 test before entering or leaving the city.
Specifically, people entering or exiting the city will be required to scan QR codes at checkpoints. In case there are new regulations about traveling during the pandemic, residents need to be informed of them 24 hours in advance.
The city in coordination with other localities and State agencies are ramping up efforts to issue detailed guidelines about travel regulations, the vice chairman said.
Commenting on the issue, a Health Ministry representative said that the ministry had issued a telegraph on June 30, requiring drivers of interprovincial goods and passenger transport vehicles to have negative Covid-19 test results.
In response to the city’s suggestion about more specific guidelines over the period of validity of the testing results, the ministry pledged to release the guidelines today.
Nguyen Huy Dung, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, said that all residents have been granted QR codes through health declaration mobile apps, or Bluezone or NCOVI. Therefore, they only need to scan the given codes when passing through Covid-19 checkpoints.
In the next 24 hours, the ministries of Information and Communications and Health will integrate Covid-19 testing and vaccination results into personal QR codes.
The Ministry of Information and Communications demanded that all people entering and exiting HCMC declare their health status and undergo Covid-19 tests. For workers who work in HCMC and are non-residents of the city, the city will work with the neighboring provinces on traveling requirements.
Le Anh Tuan, Deputy Minister of Transport, said aviation and road transport activities could avoid traffic congestion, if the compliance with regulations on integrating the results of health declarations, Covid-19 testing and vaccination into one QR code for each resident is implemented properly.
Further, aside from having a negative testing result, people have to stay alert to the possibility of a transmission risk and strictly follow anti-virus measures as recommended by the Health Ministry, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam noted.
