Mekong Delta province discourages going out at night amid rising Covid cases

Nguyen Thanh Binh, chairman of the An Giang People's Committee, announced the decision Saturday, adding that numerous Covid-19 community transmission cases have been detected in certain areas, especially an outbreak at the An Giang Central General Hospital with 62 cases.

"Part of the hospital has been locked down, and departments without infection cases would continue operations," he said, adding that Covid-19 screening would happen every day to quickly extinguish the hotspot.

Another hotspot at the provincial military command has also recorded 38 cases, all of whom are soldiers who have helped people return to their hometowns from HCMC and nearby industrial hubs over the past weeks.

Besides travel limitations, An Giang would also employ contact tracing and testing efforts, as well as boosting vaccination.

"The province's maximum treatment capacity is at around 3,000 cases. We have not allowed Covid-19 cases to be treated at home, but would consider so and increase the number of mobile medical stations," Binh said.

An Giang imposed a similar ban on night-time travel in July, when Covid-19 was raging southern Vietnam, but lifted most restrictions last month.

But the Mekong Delta province has seen a rise in cases on recent days.

From October 20 to 22, it recorded 622 new Covid-19 cases. The total number of cases in the province so far is at 8,757, not to mention another 900 cases who are returnees from other localities.

Over half of the province's adult population have received at least one Covid-19 vaccine shots. Only around 10 percent have been fully vaccinated.