Ensure no crowd gathers during National Day break: PM

In an urgent letter sent to cities and provinces Tuesday, the PM demanded all to tighten Covid-19 prevention methods for the upcoming National Day occasion.

The holiday which allows people four days off from Thursday to Sunday could lead to threats of spreading infections if they travel and gather together in one place, he said.

While the ongoing Covid-19 wave has yet to be controlled, local authorities must ensure that people will not gather in crowds.

Cities and provinces that are applying social distancing measures must strictly make people stay where they are, guarantee absolutely no crowd gathering, prevent people from going out on the streets as much as possible, and strictly handle any violations, the PM ordered.

He also told localities to stop all cultural activities if not necessary, suspend all entertainment and spiritual activities and at the same time, enhance inspections at places where people usually visit to avoid any possible gathering before it could happen.

He demanded all frontline task forces at each locality to stay alert "around the clock" to handle any possible violations and threats to "absolutely avoid the situation of being neglected and losing vigilance, allowing the pandemic to grow stronger as what had happened during the Reunification Day (April 30) and Labor Day (May 1) holidays.

During the four-day holiday starting April 30, huge crowds had been flocking to tourist hotspots across Vietnam even when Covid-19 had already reemerged in the nation.

At that time, 16 new domestic cases had been confirmed after Vietnam had gone over a month of no Covid-19 community transmission.

Those cases are the first of the fourth Covid-19 wave, which is by far the most challenging the nation has faced.

So far in the wave, 457,882 have been recorded in 62 of the country’s 63 cities and provinces as of Tuesday, only except the northern Cao Bang Province. More than 11,000 have died.