On August 9, after Hanoi tightened the granting and checking of travelling papers, traffic jams occurred at some checkpoints. Hanoi Vice Mayor Nguyen Manh Quyen said the tightened examination aims to minimize the number of people in circulation to ensure implementation of the social distancing policy.

This prevents the virus from spreading and protects the health and lives of people. The municipal authorities want cooperation from agencies, people and institutions to implement the policy.

Under the social distancing principle stipulated in the Prime Minister Directive 16, people can only go out when it’s really necessary.

The Hanoi Mayor’s Directive 17 clearly states that all agencies, businesses and organizations in the city should organize work-from-home for their staff. Authorized workers only go to offices when it is necessary to handle confidential documents or perform other urgent tasks, or be on duty.

In the last two weeks of the first social distancing campaign, agencies and businesses have been found not strictly observing the requirements. There was a high number of people in circulation, and many of them did not have legitimate reasons.

This adversely affected pandemic prevention and control. On August 7, the Hanoi People’s Committee asked to ‘tighten examination and use of travel papers during social distancing’.

However, traffic congestion and people gathering at some points in the cities occurred, especially checkpoints.

Therefore, the city will have to adjust the inspection method to make it more reasonable and be sure that people use traveling documents for right purposes.

Quyen said that the optimal goal for now is protecting the health and safety of people’s life, so the municipal authorities will apply serious measures to ensure social distancing principles.

He requested districts, towns and wards to carefully study the content of Directive 17, official dispatches and legal documents, strengthen the application of information technology and be flexible in examining traveling documents to ensure the most favorable conditions for agencies and businesses.

He asked districts, wards and communes to examine traveling documents at the checkpoints located at residential quarters.

Checking travel papers doesn’t aim to punish people, but to place responsibility on agencies and businesses that don’t strictly observe the municipal authorities’ instruction on arranging reasonable working schedules.

Checkpoint staff who discover violations have to inform the police.

Tran Thuong

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