HCM City: 96 percent of workers return to work after Tet holiday

HCM City (VNA) – As of February 10 morning, more than 1.9 million workers, or 96 percent of the total number in Ho Chi Minh City had got back to work after the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday  – the longest festival in Vietnam, a local official said.

Nguyen Van Lam, Deputy Director of the HCM City Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, told a regular meeting on COVID-19 control and economic recovery on February 10 that a number of enterprises have secured orders until July and issued policies to keep employees.

The southern economic hub would need around 30,000 labourers after Tet, mainly to serve trade, technology, information, garment-textile, food and foodstuff sectors, he said.

Tran Ngoc Trung, Standing Vice Chairman of the HCM City Federation of Labour, said the ratio of returning workers is higher than that in the previous years.

More than 86 percent of workers have got the third jab of COVID-19 vaccines, and the rate even stands at 96 percent in industrial parks, he noted.

At the meeting, the municipal Department of Education and Training also reported that students from the seventh to 12th grades had resumed in-person learning at school, and preparations are underway to reopen school for primary students and sixth graders on February 14.

The city will reopen more schools from March 1 depending on the latest situation.

Regarding the COVID-19 situation, the Health Department said the number of infections rose slightly after the holiday, with 242 cases detected on February 10. Omicron cases remain at 92 with no fatalities.

The caseload would increase in the coming time but serious cases and deaths would not rise, even decreasing thanks to good treatment, said Nguyen Thi Huynh Mai, Chief of Office of the Health Department.

The city will shut down three temporary COVOID-19 treatment hospitals, which were diverted from resettlement buildings.

The local health sector has also set out a plan to vaccinate children aged from 5-11, and will coordinate with relevant agencies to make lists of children, and set up emergency teams to ensure safety during the vaccination.

The city currently has 88 COVID-19 patients in critical conditions, including 13 on ECMO support. On February 9, 97 COVID-19 patients were hospitalised, 39 discharged from hospital and four died. As of 6pm February 9, a total of 618 COVID-19 patients were being treated at hospital, including 35 under-16 children./.