Hanoi shuts bars, karaoke parlors over Covid-19 fears

Residents are required to continue to wear masks in public spaces and related local agencies have been asked to step up supervision and strictly punish illegal entrants.

The capital city administration has been implementing several prevention measures as a new Covid-19 case was recorded on Friday after the city went 72 days without community transmission.

Vice Chairman Chu Xuan Dung has called for the pandemic warning to be raised to the highest level. On April 27, the city suspended festivals and closed its walking streets.

At a meeting of Hanoi's Steering Committee for Covid-19 control and prevention on the afternoon of April 29, local leaders stated that the pandemic development in the next few days will be complicated, especially in the context of hundreds of thousands of people scheduled to return to the capital city after the four-day weekend holiday.

Dung said concerned agencies must closely monitor people entering Hanoi from other provinces and cities after the holiday.

"Everyone has to complete medical declarations," he said.

A man in Dong Anh District, Hanoi, fills a health declaration form before entering quarantine for having contact with a Covid patient, April 30, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/ Giang Huy.

Hanoi's police officers and soldiers have been asked not to leave the capital during the holiday. The Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports has asked that the May 2 V. League match between Hanoi Club and Saigon Club is played without fans.

The first community transmission recorded in Hanoi on April 29 after a long hiatus lives in Viet Hung Commune, Dong Anh District. He is a truck driver who has been to many places since coming into contact with Patient 2899, a male migrant worker who returned from Japan early this month.

Vietnam confirmed three new Covid-19 community transmissions in Hanoi and the northern province of Hung Yen Friday morning, raising the total to nine since Thursday.

All the new cases are linked to "patient 2899", who tested positive for the novel coronavirus in the northern province of Ha Nam after completing his mandated two-week quarantine in Da Nang where he tested negative thrice.

The country has recorded 2,914 Covid-19 cases to date including 2,516 recoveries and 35 deaths.