Over 200,000 workers in the Vietnamese northern province of Bac Ninh have so far resumed work and been subject to global positioning system (GPS) tracking to ensure COVID-19 prevention and control, local authorities have said.

As of Thursday, more than 255,000 workers of nearly 1,000 enterprises in Bac Ninh had been allowed to return to work after the province had basically put the pandemic under control.

All the workers have received COVID-19 vaccination, which helps protect them from coronavirus infection and maintain uninterrupted production operations, said standing deputy chairman of provinical People’s Committee Vuong Quoc Tuan on Thursday. 

These enterprises, which are expecting to recover 100 percent of their designed production capacity, will control their workers by requesting them to wear GPS tracking rings to ensure epidemic prevention effectiveness.

Workers are required to register their daily travel routes with their enterprises.

If they do not wear the rings or fail to follow the roadmaps, the tracking device will notify their employers of such violations.

In order to prevent infection risks, enterprises arrange different meal times for workers and require them to comply with travel directions at work.

Since June 30, all workers have been carried by shuttle buses from home to work and vice versa, without using private vehicles.

Enterprises’ leaders and experts are allowed to use personal vehicles to travel between localities not subject to social distancing under the prime minister’s Directive 16, provided they strictly follow epidemic prevention rules.

Provincial authorities also ask landlords who rent out accommodations to workers to install surveillance cameras at their facilities, and check the presence of workers at 9:00 pm every day, among other measures.

Every enterprise is required to organize weekly COVID-19 testing for 20 percent of its workforce.

Workers in Bac Ninh see their life more difficult than before but their basic living conditions have still been maintained, as enterprises paid them up to 85 percent of monthly wage during their work suspension, deputy chairman Tuan said.

“Local authorities always provide due care for poor workers, disadvantaged people and workers in quarantine facilities,” the official added.

Despite the pandemic, local enterprises in industrial parks registered a total production value of nearly VND550 trillion (US$23.9 billion) during the first six months of 2021, a year-on-year increase of 11 percent, according to statistics.

The province’s export turnover in the period reached more than $16.2 billion, up 16 percent from a year earlier, while its import value was recorded at $11.6 billion, up 28 percent.

The first half of the year also saw Bac Ninh contribute about VND5.2 trillion ($226 million) to the state budget, up 24 percent versus last year.

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