HCMC mulls third Covid-19 relief package

If approved, it will be the second Covid-19 financial support package the city will release this year and the third since the start of the pandemic.

The new package aims to give VND1.5 million ($65) each to 334,000 informal workers, and VND1 million each to 90,000 poor households and 170,000 others who lost their jobs due to Covid-19 impacts, live in rented apartments and residential areas under lockdown.

The proposal by the municipal Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs has been submitted to the HCMC People’s Committee for approval.

"All people in need that are staying in the city right now will be considered for access to the new package, regardless their migrant or registered resident status," said Le Minh Tan, the department’s director.

The package will be funded mainly by the city budget and other sources including the 21 districts and Thu Duc City as well as the Covid-19 fighting fund managed by the HCMC Fatherland Front Committee, an umbrella organization of all political and social groups in the city.

HCMC is implementing two Covid-19 relief packages at the same time to support people affected by the pandemic: the federal package of VND26 trillion ($1.13 billion) for all affected localities; and the city’s own VND886 billion package.

As of August 2, more than 334,000 informal laborers had been given VND1.5 million each and more than 42,500 employees temporarily suspended from performing their labor contracts or taken unpaid leave had received VND1.8 million each.

In addition to informal laborers, the city has also used the VND886-billion package to help 60,000 vendors at wet markets, 9,000 business households, people sent to centralized quarantine camps, and frontline forces.