Panic shopping in Vietnam’s largest city before a narrower closure of COVID-19

HANOI, Aug 21 (Reuters) – Vietnam’s plan to ban Ho Chi Minh City residents from leaving their homes as of Monday has sparked panic buying at the epicenter of its worst coronavirus outbreak.

The fight for purchases is hurting efforts in the country’s largest city to contain the spiraling outbreak of COVID-19, Vietnam’s official news agency said.

Long queues of people outside the markets were seen and the shelves of Ho Chi Minh City supermarkets were emptied on Saturday, state witnesses and media reported.

“It looks chaotic,” said one person who only gave his Nguyen name to the city’s 2nd district.

“Too many people rush to buy food and essentials for their hard days,” he told Reuters. “I got it with some food because I don’t want to starve before I die of coronavirus.”

Vietnam said on Friday that it would also deploy troops in the city to enforce the closure and deliver food supplies to citizens as the city resorted to drastic measures to curb a spiraling rate of coronavirus deaths. Read more

Vietnam has recorded 323,000 coronavirus infections and 7,540 deaths, with the city of Ho Chi Minh more than half of the cases and 80% of the fatalities, according to the health ministry.

“The city is prepared with measures to supply food and essential goods for residents,” said Phan Van Mai, deputy head of the city’s coronavirus working group.

The ruling Communist Party of Vietnam on Friday announced the decision to replace Nguyen Thanh Phong as chairman of the city’s People’s Committee. He gave no reason, but analysts cited his mishandling of the outbreak.

Edited by William Mallard

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