HCMC – Delivery drivers in HCMC will continue to undergo rapid Covid tests for free at over 400 pop-up healthcare stations citywide until September 15, said a city official.
The extension of the testing drive for delivery workers has been approved by Le Hoa Binh, vice chairman of the municipal government, following the city’s Department of Industry and Trade’s proposal, aimed at facilitating the transport of essential goods to serve the city dwellers during the stringent stay-at-home period.
Earlier, delivery drivers in eight extremely high-risk districts, also known as “red zones”, were allowed to resume operations starting from August 31 provided they had received at least one Covid vaccine dose and were asked to take a Covid test every day.
Along with over 12,500 delivery drivers in 14 other districts deemed as safe zones, or “green zones”, the total number of tech-based delivery workers in the city was raised to some 25,000 people.
According to the municipal Trade Department, the delivery forces have actively joined the transport of essential items to serve local residents since August 30.
Among the delivery workers that had registered to resume operations, around a half of them actually offered their services. However, over one million orders have been processed and completed, with each day seeing an average of 152,000 orders. On September 1, nearly 10,800 delivery drivers shipped more than 196,000 orders.
Yesterday, however, many delivery workers complained that some walk-in medical stations suspended Covid testing for the delivery forces stating they had yet to receive any notice about the extension of the free testing drive. This forced many delivery workers to stop receiving orders from customers.
The southern city banned residents from leaving their homes from August 23 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and continued to extend the stay-at-home mandate until September 15. As of yesterday, the city had reported nearly 266,000 cases, including some 10,900 deaths, during the current coronavirus wave which struck the country in late April.
