HCMC – The central city of Danang, Vietnam’s current Covid-19 hotspot, has decided to extend social distancing until further notice, as how the pandemic will play out remains unknown.

Hoa Vang District began implementing social distancing from 1 p.m. on August 11, the municipal government said in a statement issued recently. The city’s leader asked local residents to stay at home and only go out to buy food, medicines and other necessities, wear face masks while going out and wash their hands regularly using soap or hand sanitizer. Operations of essential businesses will continue as usual during the social distancing period. Besides this, the city’s Health Department was told to direct the Danang City Center for Disease Control and Prevention to team up with relevant agencies to accelerate contact tracing, increase testing capacity, detect and weed out new outbreaks. The Health Department has to closely monitor activities including providing treatment for Covid-19 patients and minimizing the number of deaths due to the disease. It must order medical centers and the city’s field hospital to fully comply with Covid-19 preventive measures. The Department of Industry and Trade was assigned to work with other units and local authorities to take more drastic measures to prevent the spread of the virus at traditional wet markets, supermarkets, wholesale markets, fishing ports and locks. The city’s chairperson asked for the execution of adequate and effective measures to reduce the number of grocery shopping trips of locals to assist with efforts to contain the pandemic. Further, the Industry and Trade Department was urged to ensure essential commodities are sufficient to cope with a scenario under which the pandemic could prolong.