HCMC asks firms to test staff for Covid weekly

Businesses would pay for the tests themselves, according to the municipal People's Committee. The list of firms encouraged to adopt the measure would be decided by the High-tech Park Management Board before July 4. The move is part of the city's efforts to combat the coronavirus until July 10, it added.

Besides the quick Covid-19 tests, the city would also ramp up testing and screening in industrial parks and high-tech areas, in which Covid-19 results could be returned within 12 hours. Rigorous testing would also be performed in quarantine zones and other locked down vicinities.

The HCMC People's Committee has also requested its medical workers to determine lockdown areas more quickly following the detection of coronavirus-positive cases. Relevant authorities responsible for securing Covid-19 vaccine sources should also speed things up to ensure two-thirds of the city's population could be inoculated this year.

The southern metropolis is experiencing its toughest Covid-19 wave yet, recording high numbers of infections for multiple days in a row. Many community transmissions have not been successfully traced back to their sources.

So far, Ho Chi Minh City has recorded 3,998 local Covid-19 cases in Vietnam's fourth coronavirus wave since late April, second only to Bac Giang with 5,703.