Military vehicles are seen spraying disinfectant over a street in HCMC. HCMC Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong yesterday, July 24, signed an urgent dispatch giving specific guidelines on practicing the social distancing order citywide to combat Covid-19 under the prime minister’s intense Directive 16 – PHOTO: VNA

HCMC – HCMC Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong yesterday, July 24, signed an urgent dispatch giving specific guidelines on practicing the social distancing order citywide to combat Covid-19 under the prime minister’s intense Directive 16.

Specifically, the chairman ordered intensifying inspection and supervision over the implementation of social distancing and lockdown restrictions.

Residents are only allowed to go out for urgent purposes such as buying food, medicines and other necessities; for work at State-run agencies, diplomatic units, armed forces, or other emergencies.

Also, more aggressive measures must be taken to monitor areas under quarantine or lockdown.

For lockdown areas, by evaluating the location, the number of residents and infections, and transmission factors of an area needed to be locked down, local authorities have to decide on a proper lockdown scale.

In addition, residents in lockdown areas must not interact with neighboring households and must refrain from going out except for medical purposes. The authorities have to make arrangements to deliver food and other necessities to their doorsteps.

Also, Covid-19 task forces must be set up in lockdown areas, with the participation of local police, military officers, volunteers and other competent forces to intensify inspection and supervision over the compliance with social distancing measures among local households, especially those in narrow and densely populated alleys.

Organizations and individuals who want to donate food to residents in lockdown areas are required to contact the Covid-19 task forces for measures to deliver food to each household, instead of asking local residents to go out to receive the food directly.

Local competent forces must impose strict sanctions on violators of social distancing rules.

For quarantine areas, quarantinees must strictly follow quarantine requirements, must not venture out and interact with others, except for medical emergencies.

Competent forces were asked to closely monitor the home-isolation of Covid-19 patients and direct contacts of confirmed cases. Households having such cases must stay at home while the authorities will provide food and necessities to their houses.

As for units that are allowed to remain in operation during the shelter-in-place period, the municipal government ordered State-owned units or agencies to allow their employees to work from home, with a few exceptions such as those on duty or in special circumstances, and stop all non-essential meetings. The number of workers at these agencies must not exceed one-third of their total employees.

Meanwhile, the armed forces and the health sector must ensure 100% of forces and medical workers serve the fight against the disease.

For banks and securities companies, they have to maintain operations at a minimum capacity. Their branches and transaction offices can divide shifts among their workforce and are encouraged to apply the stay-at-work mode to prevent the transmission risk of the disease.

Further, production factories, construction sites, construction projects; suppliers of essential goods such as food, medicines, fuels, power, water and materials; cargo transport service operators, import-export service providers and medical checkup and treatment services are allowed to remain operational, but must ensure Covid-19 safety.