HCMC – HCMC Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong, at a meeting with State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc this morning, July 30, said that the city might extend social distancing under the prime minister’s Directive 16 for two more weeks, starting after August 1, with stricter anti-pandemic measures from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Phong said HCMC had been practicing social distancing for 61 days with different levels of strictness, the local media reported.
Over the past 19 days deploying Directive 16, the city has detected more than 3,300 Covid-19 cases per day on average, mainly in centralized quarantine centers and in areas under lockdown.
Nearly 26,000 patients have recovered from the disease, while over 36,000 others are being treated at hospitals and medical centers, including over 300 relying on ventilators and eight put on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machines.
The city has established a special team regulating the transport of critical patients and mobilized four private hospitals with a total capacity of 375 beds to treat Covid-19 patients.
Since July 22, more than 390,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses were administered, raising the total number of doses administered to local residents to nearly 1.3 million. The city has also supported 496,000 people affected by the pandemic with VND572 billion.
Assessing the deployment of anti-pandemic measures in the city, the municipal chairman said the nighttime restrictions had been complied with strictly. However, many people were still stepping out without a legitimate reason from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Therefore, the city will tighten inspection and supervision during these hours and impose heavy sanctions on violators.
The city will also focus on the treatment of critical Covid-19 patients with underlying illnesses and shorten the treatment period of Covid-19 patients.
