Social distancing in Vietnam: People are still allowed to leave their homes in these cases

According to Directive No. 16/CT-TTg, people will carry out nationwide quarantine for 15 days from 12 am of April 01, 2020 between families, neighborhoods/villages, communes, districts, provinces. Also from April 01, 2020, the Prime Minister of Vietnam requests people to stay at home and only go outside in strictly necessary cases as follows:

- Buying food;

- Buying medicines;

- Emergency treatment;

- Going to work at facilities that are allowed to maintain operation to provide essential goods or services;

- Other urgent circumstances.

State agencies and units shall apply information technology to enable officials and public employees to work from home, except for those whose presence at work is strictly necessary such as keeping guard, keeping watch, provision of essential goods and services, processing confidential documents and performance of other necessary tasks. Online meetings are recommended.

With regard to transport activities, the Prime Minister also requests the  Ministry of Transport, the People’s Committees of provinces to order shutdown of public transportation; restrict movement from one area to another; stop movement from affected areas to other areas except for the following cases:

- Performance of official tasks;

- Provision of food and essential consumables;

- Transport of workers and specialists of enterprises;

- Transport of raw materials for production.

It can be seen that the directives given by the Prime Minister during this time are extremely necessary. This is a crucial phase in which the whole country is joining hands to fight the pandemic. The number of cases in Vietnam is increasing rapidly every day, with a high risk of community transmission. It is predicted that the disease will spread quickly on a wide scale, posing a serious threat to human lives, health, and the socio-economic situation of the country. Therefore, minimizing contact between individuals and regions is one of the urgent and necessary measures to control the spread of the disease and prevent an individual's infection from affecting the entire community.

View all contents of the Prime Minister’s Directive HERE.

Nguyen Trinh

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