People are advised to stay in HCM City

During the livestream ‘Dan hoi, thanh pho tra loi’ (People ask, city’s leaders answer) on September 30, many people raised questions to HCM City Vice Mayor Vo Van Hoan.

One common concern is how people can return to HCM City after September 30 to resume work and study.

Hoan said the municipal authorities know that many people are still stuck in other provinces and cannot return to HCM City. Many workers also want to come back to HCM City when factories and businesses reopen their doors.

HCM City is preparing to recover the economy so it needs to create favorable conditions for workers to return.

“Businesses need to draw up lists of workers, gather them, determine the locations for gathering, and then the municipal authorities and businesses will come to the locations and pick them up to go to HCM City,” Hoan said.

As for other people who do not work at enterprises, the municipal authorities are organizing inter-provincial bus routes to take them to HCM City.

The HCM City Transport Department has submitted to the HCM City People’s Committee a draft plan after September 30.

There are three methods suggested.

First, businesses send plans on transporting workers to relevant agencies, which report to the city’s transport department. The vehicles carrying people will be buses with more than 10 seats which have business registration.

Second, Industrial Zone (IZ), Export Processing Zone (EPZ) and Hi-tech Zone management board assesses the demand of the businesses in the zones, cooperates with FUTA Bus Lines to build transportation plans and submits it to the transport department.

Third, organizing ordinary routes, four trips per day per route.

While many people want to return to HCM City to work and study, others want to leave the city because they cannot continue living there without an income.

Hoan said that returning to hometowns is not prohibited, but it’s necessary to think carefully about the issue.

First, people may cause an outbreak in other localities, even if they have been vaccinated. If people return to hometowns en masse, they may cause overloading of the local healthcare system.

Second, HCM City encourages people to stay because it needs workers when it begins reopening the economy. The municipal authorities have loosened the lockdown to reorganize production and business. People staying in HCM City will have jobs and income.

Third, people are advised to stay in HCM City for more months and work to get money before they return to their hometowns for the Tet holiday.

Hoan reassured people that those who stay in HCM City will be vaccinated and given support packages. The city is going to deliver support to pandemic-hit businesses and people in the third campaign.

However, Hoan stressed that HCM City and other provinces will create favorable conditions for people who really need to return to hometowns.

As for older people, children, pregnant people, recovered Covid-19 cases and fully vaccinated people, the city will ask the Prime Minister to instruct local authorities to facilitate their return.

“In these cases, if they are really urgent, the city may deal with each case specifically,” Hoan said.

Meanwhile, other people will have to register their return, and relevant agencies will create lists of people and join forces with local authorities to take them home.

HCM City has so far organized trips to transport 35,000 people to their hometowns by air and train.

The trips need to be orderly and well organized to ensure anti-pandemic measures. 

Thu Anh

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