Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City police are preparing a plan to control travel of residents with quick response codes instead of travel passes amid the raging COVID-19 pandemic, an official has said.

Colonel Le Manh Ha, deputy head of the municipal police’s advisory division, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper about the plan at a press conference on Saturday.

Accordingly, local police will use QR codes, which are used for making health declarations through the Ministry of Public Security’s domestic movement control software, to oversee travel of people during the COVID-19 social distancing period, Colonel Ha said.

Officers at checkpoints will simply scan the QR codes of commuters to know whether they are eligible for travel or not, he said.

The municipal police are putting the details of travel permit holders as well as people exempt from travel passes into the national population database system to serve the plan.

In addition, the police have asked agencies and companies to provide them with the lists of staff holding such permits.

“When QR codes are applied, there is no need to check travel passes. This will minimize direct contact among people and thereby help prevent the COVID-19 spread,” Colonel Ha commented.

As the QR code control method will replace the paper version, organizations wanting to have more staff to be allowed to go out for tasks are required to provide the city’s police with their information, the official said.

Regarding the rumor that the city’s police will revoke travel passes from people whose names are not updated in the list of people qualified for travel in the national population database, Colonel Ha said such revocation will be considered only when the police have completed the list.

As of September 2, the city’s police have received from relevant agencies and organizations the lists of 58,649 out of the 113,906 people who have been granted travel passes by the municipal road and railway police units.

The police have also recorded 480 persons whose travel passes were issued by police of districts and communes and 234 cases of travel pass exemption.

By 6:00 am Saturday morning, 241,603 COVID-19 cases have been recorded in Ho Chi Minh City since the pandemic hit the country in early 2020, the city’s Center for Disease Control reported, citing the Ministry of Health.

Nationwide, the total number of coronavirus patients has amounted to 501,648 and the death toll has reached 12,446, including 9,974, or 80.13 percent, in Ho Chi Minh City, the ministry reported on Friday evening.

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