At least 22 Vietnamese cities and provinces have been allowed to either study online at home or take early Lunar New Year holiday regarding the complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam recently.

According to the order of the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, all schools from kindergartens, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, vocational training centers, to continuing education centers will be closed from Tuesday.

Since then until February 5, students will study online at home.

Their Lunar New Year holiday will begin on February 6 and last until February 16 as previously scheduled.

Before Ho Chi Minh City, students in Hanoi also turned to online study from Monday.

In the same move, authorities in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province also ordered schools in Phu My Town to close from Monday and other localities in the province from Tuesday, five days earlier than the originally scheduled Lunar New Year holiday, as a student had traveled on the same flight as a COVID-19 patient.

Northern Vinh Phuc, Bac Ninh, Lai Chau, Cao Bang, Thai Nguyen, Son La, Hung Yen, Hoa Binh, Thai Binh, and Tuyen Quang Provinces also permitted students to take early holidays from Monday.

Some other localities, including Bac Kan, Hai Phong, Gia Lai, Hai Duong, and Quang Ninh, asked students to stay home since last weekend.

The number of cities and provinces, which have shifted to online study or allowed early school break, has reached 22 as of the time of writing. 

The actions came in the wake of new coronavirus outbreaks in Vietnam on January 28, after the country had gone almost two months without any domestic transmission.

Vietnam’s number of local infections in the new coronavirus wave increased to 240 on Monday morning.

Of the figure, 188 patients were documented in Hai Duong, 25 in Quang Ninh, 15 in Hanoi, four in Gia Lai, three in Bac Ninh, two in Hoa Binh, and one each in Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, and Hai Phong.

The majority of the domestically-transmitted cases were traced back to Hai Duong and Quang Ninh.

Health officials have conducted aggressive contact tracing as well as targeted testing and lockdowns since the new wave blindsided the country.

The patient tally mounted to 1,819 cases, including 933 domestic infections, as of Monday morning, with 1,457 recoveries and 35 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health.

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