The north-central Vietnamese province Thua Thien-Hue has removed all restrictions on outdoor gatherings and allowed crowded activities to resume from Saturday after over a month of banning such activities to prevent COVID-19.

The decision was announced on Friday by the Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control of Thua Thien-Hue Province.

Outdoor activities such as cultural festivals, religious ceremonies, funerals, weddings, cultural events, tourism activities and sports events, which were prohibited in the province from August 3 to curb the second wave of COVID-19 outbreaks that began in neighboring Da Nang City, will be allowed to resume from 0:00 Saturday.

However, these crowded events must still comply with COVID-19 prevention and safety measures.

School activities will return to normalcy from Monday next week, provided the school facilities uphold the set of requirements of COVID-19 prevention indicated by the Ministry of Education and Training.

Persons entering the province from the pandemic hotspots of Hai Duong Province, Quang Nam Province and Da Nang City are still required to make health declarations and have a negative COVID-19 test result.

Arrivals from these localities are asked not to stay in Thua Thien-Hue for more than 72 hours.

So far, bus routes connecting Hue — the provincial capital city — and Da Nang have not been allowed to resume operation.

Da Nang reported a local case of COVID-19 on July 25 after the country had gone 99 days without any transmission in the community.

Since then, 551 locally-transmitted cases have been documented in Vietnam, mostly in Da Nang and neighboring Quang Nam Province.

Thua Thien-Hue has documented only two cases of COVID-19 infection since the pandemic first hit Vietnam in January. Both patients have been cleared of the virus.

The province has also helped treat 13 of the most serious cases from Da Nang and Quang Nam to share the burden.

Vietnam has recorded 1,060 COVID-19 cases, with 902 recoveries and 35 deaths to date.

Most of the virus-related fatalities have been of patients with underlying conditions like kidney failure, cancer and diabetes.

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