HCMC detects 1,800 Covid cases inside industrial zones

Industrial zones across HCMC have reported as many as 1,837 Covid-19 cases in the ongoing wave that hit Vietnam late April.

Before Ho Chi Minh City entered a 15-day social distancing period with more stringent measures on July 9, industrial zones in the city had recorded 1,159 infections.

Ever since the order was imposed, 678 more cases have been added, Hua Quoc Hung, head of the HCMC Export Processing Zone and Industrial Park Authority (HEPZA), told a city meeting Thursday.

Saigon Hi-Tech Park in Thu Duc City detected four infections among employees of Nidec Sankyo Vietnam on June 28. Since then, the park has recorded 739 cases, including five foreigners.

At Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone in District 7, health authorities reported an employee positive for the novel coronavirus on June 25. Until now, more than 400 cases at 50 companies in the zone have been found via mass testing.

At Linh Trung Export Processing Zone 2 in Thu Duc City, Theodore Alexander HCMC Co. Ltd uncovered six positive cases on July 2 while mass tests later found 161 infections at the company.

On July 13, the city administration required manufacturing firms only continue operating if they could arrange for workers to stay back at the factory or have them stay in hotels or dormitories instead of moving back and forth between their residencies and the factory.

Those that cannot fulfill such requirements must be suspended from Thursday.

HCMC employs 320,000 workers in export processing zones and a high-tech park, along with nearly 1.3 million in 17 industrial zones.

The city is now the epicenter of Vietnam’s ongoing wave. By Friday, it has recorded more than 22,500 cases.

It has gone one week under a stricter social distancing order, which does not allow people to leave their home apart from buying food, seeking medical treatment or working at companies that are still allowed to open.

By Huu Cong – VnExpress.net – July 16, 2021