HCMC industrial parks take precautions against Covid spread

Phong Phu International JSC at the Phong Phu industrial complex in Thu Duc City has got 1,000 workers ready for getting the new coronavirus tests.

A worker in the industrial complex had tested positive on Monday.

Phong Phu International JSC, a garment company, has already requested all people related to the infected case to stay home.

Inside its plant, Phong Phu has increased the distance between its workers and made sure no one will sit facing another person.

It has stopped receiving visitors since last week.

Workers at Phong Phu International JSC, Thu Duc, HCMC, May 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Le Tuyet.

A worker at the Vinh Loc Industrial Park in Hoc Mon District was found positive following mass testing in Go Vap District, now the biggest Covid hotspot in HCMC after the infection spread from a religious mission last Wednesday.

Saigon Food JSC in the park is seeking to contact trace its more than 2,000 workers, and has disinfected its premises.

Footwear maker Pouyuen Vietnam Co., Ltd. in Binh Tan District, the biggest employer in HCMC with more than 65,000 employees, has provided a number of its workers with face shields since it cannot increase the distance between them.

It has installed more than 100 CCTV cameras in its canteen to monitor workers and ensure they do not breach Covid safety regulations. It is operating almost 500 buses to ferry workers to ensure there are less than 20 in each.

A worker wears a face shield when working at a factory of Pouyuen Vietnam Co., Ltd. in HCMC's Binh Tan District, June 2021. Photo by VnExpress/An Phuong.

Foreign experts who have come recently to work at Pouyuen are only allowed to move between their dormitory and factory.

With more than 6,000 workers, Samsung Electronics HCMC CE Complex Co. Ltd at the Saigon Hi-Tech Park in Thu Duc City has all office employees working from home.

As for factory workers, all are provided with N95 respirator masks rather than surgical masks.

It now sends meals to workers through conveyor belts for them to eat at their work spot instead of gathering in the canteen. It has also barred visitors.

City officials have confirmed that the Covid cluster at the Christian congregation in Go Vap is the source of infections at several dozen companies and three industrial parks.

In all over 200 cases have been traced to the cluster in 20 of the city’s 22 districts.

The Quang Trung Software Park in District 12 has reported four cases, and three industrial parks, Tan Binh in Tan Binh District, Vinh Loc in Hoc Mon District and Tay Bac in Cu Chi District, each with 500-1,000 workers, have reported one each.

"HCMC has 1.6 million workers and without proper measures to control the pandemic, there could be a crisis," Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long warned city officials at a meeting on Tuesday.

Huynh Van Tuan, chairman of the trade union affiliated to the HCMC Export Processing Zone and Industrial Park Authority (HEPZA), said HEPZA is working closely with businesses to collect information about the whereabouts of their workers to identify infected areas as quickly as possible should anyone get infected.

The city has 17 export processing zones, industrial parks and high-tech zones with 1,500 businesses.

It has recorded 227 Covid cases so far in the latest wave that began five weeks ago.