Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam starts lifting COVID restrictions

Vietnam’s industrial hub Ho Chi Minh City has started easing its pandemic-related restrictions today, officials said, bringing a phase-wise end to four months of strict curbs that have halted commercial activity. “We are gradually opening but put our residents’ safety first,” Le Hoa Binh, deputy chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, said.

“All checkpoints on the streets will be lifted and no travel permits will be needed after today,” Binh told a recent press conference.

Ho Chi Minh City accounted for half of Vietnam’s 780,000 COVID-19 cases and four-fifths of the 19,000 deaths. So far, more than 98 per cent of the city’s adults have been partially vaccinated, whereas close to half have received both shots. However, the overall vaccination rate of the country remains low at 9.8 per cent due to a shortage of vaccine.

Vietnam’s industrial hub Ho Chi Minh City started easing its pandemic-related restrictions today, officials said, bringing a phase-wise end to four months of strict curbs that have halted commercial activity. “We are gradually opening but put our residents’ safety first,” Le Hoa Binh, deputy chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, said.

The decline in production in Vietnam’s textile, leather and footwear industries due to COVID-19 has affected the global supply chain, according to a report released by HSBC last month. Nearly 35 per cent of textile-garment factories in the country were forced to close down due to the pandemic, according to the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS).

The country’s General Statistics Office (GSO) reported this week that its gross domestic product slid 6.17 per cent year over year for the July-September period, the first such decline in two decades.

Growth in the final quarter of the year could be 5.3 per cent following an expansion of 1.4 per cent in the first nine months of the year.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)