Central localities receive people back from Covid-19 epicenter HCMC

As Ho Chi Minh City suffers its worst Covid-19 community outbreak ever and with cases expected to rise, localities in central Vietnam have decided to help their citizens wishing to return home from the southern metropolis.

Da Nang City will organize three free flights on Wednesday to return 618 residents.

Returnees will be sent to hotels for two-week quarantine and be tested. They are allowed to stay there for free and only have to pay for daily meals, which is VND80,000 ($3.47) per day and a service fee of VND40,000 per day, as regulated at all centralized quarantine facilities across Vietnam.

Binh Dinh Province will operate four flights to take 1,000 people home in the next two weeks.

All returnees will be sent straight to centralized quarantine camps, where they will stay for 14 days without having to pay any fees.

The province said it would give priority to people who have been hit financially by the complicated pandemic situation in the city.

Thua Thien Hue Province is planning to take 300 citizens home by train between July 20 and 25. The first on the list would be the poor, the elderly, pregnant women, and children. Once arriving in Thua Thien Hue, all must go to centralized quarantine camps.

Quang Nam and Ha Tinh provinces have also made the same move, with plans to take their residents home by plane, train or bus. Those returning to Quang Nam would be allowed to stay for free in quarantine camps.

Quang Ngai Province plans to take 400 people back home in the first phase.

Gia Lai Province in the Central Highlands has drawn up a list of students and people working in HCMC who wish to return back home and said it would arrange buses for them soon.

HCMC, home to 13 million people including migrants, has been for weeks the worst-hit locality so far in the fourth wave that started in Vietnam in late April.

The southern metropolis has recorded as many as 32,926 infections as of Monday morning and the authorities said more should be expected in the coming time as the city has kept detecting new cases in the community with unidentified sources of transmission.

The city has practiced social distancing for weeks, with many businesses and services shut down, leaving many people including migrants out of job.