63-year-old Thai Ngoc Lien, living in Neighborhood No.52 of Ward 1 in District 5, shared that since she is a freelancer, the latest Covid-19 outbreak in HCMC has left her out of job for the last few months. Seeing that her quarter is being classified as a ‘green zone’, she volunteered to join the self-management team to safeguard her neighborhood.
At present, the entrance into this green zone is partly sealed, with only two small ways to enter and exit the zone to ensure no direct contact. No stranger is allowed to go into the zone. People on duty represent others in the zone to receive purchased goods and then deliver them to the corresponding addresses.
Ward 1 of District 5 is the hot spot of Covid-19 since it has many small alleys and small, simple houses with a dense population. The good news is many neighborhoods in the ward have gradually turned green.
“Right now, the ward has 44 out of 69 neighborhoods classified as red or orange zones. Even though certain neighborhoods have only a few F0 cases, the ward still considers them as red zones for ease of control and plans of transforming them to orange and to yellow zones progressively. 5 of 6 quarters in the ward have been able to do this, and the ward tries to increase the surface area of green zones by 20 percent at the end of this August”, said Vice Chairman of Ward 1 People’s Committee Nguyen Cong Tam.
The localities of District 5 reported that the current green zone proportion in the district reaches 60 percent.
Meanwhile, Can Gio District has effectively applied specific focused Covid-19 prevention and control measures, resulting in the proportion of 88 percent of its surface areas being green. Six of its communes are completely green, with the seventh – Binh Khanh Commune – being expected to be fully green on August 28.
In order to protect green zones, the authorities of District 5 assign police officers, militiamen, and members of volunteer groups to safeguard the zones. Along with that are regular Covid-19 tests for people living in these zones to timely detect new infected cases.
In red and orange zones, District 5 organizes Covid-19 tests 3 times a week and vaccination for those in need. These zones are closely monitored and unsealed when criteria are met.
Nha Be District acts similarly to District 5, letting people in red and orange zones test frequently. At the moment, 50 percent of state officials in the district are mobilize to perform this task in neighborhoods to promptly discover F0 cases. In the last 3 days, the district has finished the test for nearly 80,000 people in red and orange zones to re-evaluate the general situation.
District 7 tightens the monitoring tasks of people in and out of green zones to safeguard them. Any F0 case in the district, especially those living in apartment buildings or small alleys, is transferred to a centralized site to ensure the surface area of green zones are safe and gradually expanded.
Cu Chi District also has COvid-19 patients moved to field hospitals or treatment units for better care. All of the state officials and police force in the district are assigned monitoring or patrolling tasks around the district to ensure medical safety for dwellers there.
