HCMC finalizes plan to bring back workers

By Huu Cong October 2, 2021 | 06:00 am PT

A worker is vaccinated in Ho Chi Minh City, June 19, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Huu Khoa

To return to HCMC, workers need to have received their first vaccine dose 14 days prior to entry, carry a Covid-19 recovery certificate, or test negative in the previous 72 hours.

There will be three options for them to return, the city decreed, as it resumes economic activities and adapts to life with Covid-19 after months of social distancing.

In the first option, businesses would arrange their own worker transportation to designated bus stations, then use taxis or other registered vehicles to drop them at factories.

The second option would see businesses register their transport demands with industrial hub mangers who would arrange with Phuong Trang Transport Company to deliver workers.

Thirdly, the city would arrange fixed bus routes from localities to HCMC, at a maximum four per day.

The first and second options will be deployed in October, while the third starts Nov. 1.

Workers who travel by train or air also need to be first-dose vaccinated, recovered from or tested negative test for Covid within 72 hours.

Before the fourth Covid-19 wave, HCMC had around 1.2 million factory workers, over 320,000 employed across industrial parks and manufacturing zones.