Authorities in District 7, one of the two districts in Ho Chi Minh City that claim to have the COVID-19 epidemic under control, plan to allow essential goods and street businesses to reopen from September 20, with certain conditions required such as full vaccination.

Hoang Minh Tuan Anh, chairman of District 7, reported the plan to Nguyen Van Nen, secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, during a working session on Sunday morning.

The plan is meant to gradually resume the operations of different types of business and speed up socio-economic development in the ‘new normal’ period.

The first business models to be resumed will be those selling essential goods and street businesses, with a reopening schedule from September 20 to October 20.

Those businesses must meet requirements set out by local authorities, including full vaccination for staff.

Approved businesses can be open from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm every day.

The district’s administration also proposed tax exemption or reduction for businesses in 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 to help them recover after the long operation hiatus, as well as support packages for workers and rapid antigen test kits for household businesses in the first month upon resumption.

In addition, the district brought forward a policy for production enterprises to use public land lots managed by the government for one to two years in order to build temporary accommodations for workers.

In his remarks, secretary Nen hailed the district for having met requirements of epidemic prevention and control and welcomed its proactive, creative initiative for business reopening.

The city's Party chief emphasized that the reopening must be done carefully, step by step, without risk-taking and complacency as the epidemic is still complicated.

He asked the district authorities to continue COVID-19 testing, treating infection cases, vaccinating people, and taking care of their livelihoods according to the set plan. 

The city will give the district priorities to implement the plan, Nen said.

The secretary also commended the land lending idea as a justifiable proposal and vowed to consider it on the basis of compliance with the law.

On Thursday, authorities declared that the COVID-19 epidemic has been kept under control in Cu Chi District and District 7.

Meanwhile, Ho Chi Minh City is still the gravest coronavirus outbreak site in Vietnam, recording over 251,000 cases since the fourth wave emerged in Vietnam on April 27.

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