Ho Chi Minh City will not hold fireworks displays to usher in New Year, Pham Duc Hai, deputy chief of the municipal Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, said at a press meeting on Thursday.

Hai required people to follow the Ministry of Health’s advice and warnings against COVID-19 while enjoying Christmas and New Year celebrations, as the pandemic situation remains complicated with the emergence of the Omicron variant around the world.

The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee on Monday announced a plan to organize a countdown event to mark the 2022 New Year in the downtown area on December 31 should the city be at low or medium risk of COVID-19 transmission.

Authorities in District 12, Tan Phu District, Binh Tan District, Binh Chanh District, Hoc Mon District, Cu Chi District, Nha Be District, and Can Gio District as well as the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Union will hold other celebrations featuring art performances on the night of December 31 and January 1.

The city will also organize sports activities, such as the ninth Ho Chi Minh City Marathon in 2022 in District 7 and a bicycle race on Mai Chi Tho Avenue.

The municipal People’s Committee requires local authorities and event organizers to ensure the prevention and control of COVID-19 during the organization of the aforementioned programs.

If the city is at high or very high risk of COVID-19 infection, departments, agencies, organizations, and grassroots-level authorities should proactively adjust or cancel those events.

The Ho Chi Minh City administration halted all fireworks displays for the celebrations of this year’s Reunification Day (April 30) and Tet (Vietnamese Lunar New Year, which fell on February 12) to prevent the spread of COVID-19

Earlier, the city still held the New Year’s Eve fireworks show on December 31, 2020.

The southern metropolis has documented more than 497,900 COVID-19 infections since the fourth virus wave hit Vietnam on April 27.

Over 8.1 million adults out of nine million people of the city have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot, with more than seven million of them fully vaccinated, according to the national COVID-19 vaccination portal.

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