Twenty local households in Dong Nai Province’s Long Khanh City are put on lockdown due to Covid-19. The province’s Bien Hoa City yesterday, July 23, decided to lock down its Long Binh Ward, which is home to over 123,000 residents, including some 40,000 workers, starting today – PHOTO: VNA

HCMC – The rapid spread of Covid-19 has forced Bien Hoa City in Dong Nai Province to lock down its Long Binh Ward, which is home to over 123,000 residents, including some 40,000 factory workers, starting today.

The decision came out yesterday, July 23, after new infections in the ward continued to rise, with the coronavirus spreading to local boarding houses and factories.

According to the local authorities’ decision, most of the areas in the ward are on lockdown for 14 days, except for industrial zones and military units. The areas on lockdown have the highest number of workers living in boarding houses in the city. Most of them work at the industrial zones of Bien Hoa 1, Bien Hoa 2, Amata and Long Binh. Their boarding houses are usually overcrowded, thus posing a high risk of Covid transmission.

The provincial anti-Covid steering committee yesterday also extended the lockdown in the other wards of Bien Hoa including Hoa An, Tan Hanh, Tan Bien, Ho Nai and a part of Phuoc Tan until August 1. Earlier, these wards were put on lockdown for 14 days starting from July 11, with a total number of over 225,000 residents.

Bien Hoa is also imposing the lockdown on Hoa Binh Ward, a part of Long Binh Tan Ward, and the majority of Trang Dai Ward, with a total of 250,000 residents.

The city has 30 wards and communes with 1.2 million residents. It is among the most populated provincial cities in the country. As of yesterday, the city accounted for 1,025 of 2,006 coronavirus cases in the southern province.