People are brought back to their hometowns from Mien Dong Bus Station during social distancing. (Photo: SGGP)
According to the HCMC Department of Transport, to create favorable conditions for workers to return to work when the city restores economic activities, the department has coordinated with relevant departments to develop a plan to ensure safety and comply with regulations on pandemic prevention. Subjects in the transportation plan are workers of HCMC-based enterprises and cooperatives, including workers and experts, in provinces and cities that need to return to HCMC. Accordingly, to return to HCMC, workers must meet the following conditions: they must have a work plan confirmed by enterprises or cooperatives in writing and be vaccinated with the first dose for at least 14 days or recovered from Covid-19 with confirmation by medical authority. They must have a negative Covid-19 test result that is still valid as prescribed. Workers must be allowed to travel by the People's Committee of the province/city where they reside (for orange and red localities) to ensure safety in the prevention and control of the Covid-19 pandemic. Specifically, employers send their plans to focal agencies, such as the People's Committees of Thu Duc City and districts, the HCMC Export Processing Zone and Industrial Park Authority (Hepza), and the Management Board of the Saigon Hi-tech Park (SHTP), to review, summarize, and send to the HCMC Department of Transport for consideration and implementation. The department issues QR code identification certificates for vehicles and informs provinces and cities of the plan. The buses will drop off passengers at Mien Dong and Mien Tay bus stations then workers will return to their places of residence by licensed taxies or registered transit vehicles. The Hepza and the SHTP act as focal points to summarize the needs of enterprises that they manage to coordinate with Phuong Trang Bus Lines to build a transportation plan. When the plan is approved for deployment, vehicles can only drop off passengers at the registered locations. The department will organize fixed bus routes from local bus stations to HCMC. The maximum bus trip is only four trips per day per route. Transport units in charge of exploitation on each route are agreed by the HCMC Department of Transport with the departments of Transport of relevant provinces and cities to issue identification certificates before carrying out. Ticket prices will be declared and listed by transport enterprises following regulations. Implementation time will be from October 1 to October 31. People traveling by rail and air follow the plan and solutions of the Ministry of Transport to ensure the safety requirements for the prevention and control of the Covid-19 pandemic and suit the needs of localities. Regarding the general regulations for laborers when returning to the city, when buying tickets and getting on the bus, they must present a photocopy of the request enclosed with the list of employees of their companies, original certificate of negative test result for Covid-19 within 72 hours, Covid-19 vaccination certificate with the first dose injected 14 days ago, or a certificate of recovery from Covid-19. The options in the plan to receive workers back to the city will be considered and decided by the HCMC People's Committee before sending it to the People's Committees of the provinces and cities for coordination. According to statistics, from July, the Department of Transport of HCMC has coordinated with localities to bring about 33,000 people to 34 provinces and cities safely upon their wishes.
The MoT, on September 24, sent a telegram to the steering committees for the prevention and control of the Covid-19 pandemic in provinces and cities about inspecting and handling problems in traffic organization and facilitating transportation of goods and travel needs of people in the new normal under the direction of the Prime Minister.
