Many Hanoi residents were still seen keeping on with their outdoor routines on Tuesday, including exercising and fishing, despity the city still undergoing a 15-day social distancing period that bans all non-essential activities.

The current Directive No. 16 on COVID-19 prevention and control, which was introduced last Saturday, requires non-essential businesses to close and city dwellers not to leave their houses except for food, medicine, emergencies or duties at essential businesses such as state agencies, factories, essential shops, and service providers.

However, as witnessed by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper correspondents on Tuesday, many Hanoi dwellers were still out on the streets, including Nguyen Dinh Thi Street in Thuy Khue District, where checkpoint officers at its two ends proved insufficient to curb fishing, bicycling, and jogging in the area.

In the meantime, fishermen and joggers were also seen keeping up with their outdoor routines in Yen Phu Ward, Tay Ho District.

Joggers and bicyclists were reported out on the To Lich River waterfront in Dong Da District, as well as the Long Bien Bridge over the Red River.

Many riders carried their bikes over the barricades onto the bridge to practice, while joggers there completely ignored a safety checkpoint with officers standing just 50 meters away.

As stated by the capital city’s Department of Public Security, approximately VND1.5 billion (US$65,300) worth of fines was imposed on 804 cases of violations regarding pandemic prevention and control rules on Tuesday, which brought the sum collected during the first four days of the Directive No. 16 implementation in Hanoi to over VND3 billion ($130.706).

With 18 new cases detected on Wednesday morning, the city has reported 1,076 COVID-19 infections since April 27, when the fourth wave started wreaking havoc in Vietnam.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!