Đoàn xe biển đỏ tiến về Sài Gòn

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Vietnam's government said it is sending troops to Ho Chi Minh City to help deliver food and aid to households as it further tightens restrictions on people’s movements amid a worsening surge of the coronavirus.

The army personnel will be deployed to help with logistics as the city of 10 million people asks residents to “stay put” for two weeks starting from Monday, a report on the government website said Friday.

The move comes as Vietnam, which weathered much the pandemic with very few cases, recorded more than 10,000 new infections and 390 deaths on Friday. Ho Chi Minh City accounted for 3,500 of those infections.

“People must absolutely stay put, isolate from each other, from house to house, from community to community,” Prime Minsiter Pham Minh Chinh said during a meeting Friday with southern provinces hit by the outbreak.

The prime minster also called on migrant workers (lao động nhập cư) to stay in the city to avoid spreading the virus as the flee before further restrictions on movement come into effect.