Today's English "HCM City to inspect COVID prevention factories, businesses"

HCM City to inspect COVID prevention factories, businesses.

HCM City authorities have set up 100 inspection teams to assess prevention measures at factories and businesses in high-risk areas as ordered by the Ministry of Health.

The teams, which were formed on Monday will assess each factory and enterprise in high-risk areas, from low to medium to high risk. The factories and companies that are considered medium to high-risk groups must improve their COVID prevention measures. Otherwise, they will have to shut down to ensure safety, according to city authorities.

The Ministry of Health on Sunday provided an online training session on pandemic-prevention measures at business establishments across 21 districts in HCM City and Thủ Đức City, including factories, export processing zones, industrial parks, and high-tech zones.

Dương Chí Nam, deputy director of the ministry’s Department of Health Environmental Management, said it was of utmost importance to enhance COVID prevention measures at business establishments both inside and outside export processing zones and industrial parks.

When a large number of workers gather in one place, factories and industrial parks face an extremely high risk of becoming serious outbreaks. He said that infection clusters could disrupt production and supply chains, seriously affecting the country’s economy.

Under guidance from the ministry, the inspection teams within three to five days must complete evaluations and provide guidance on prevention measures for enterprises with more than 200 workers (more than 2,000 businesses).

Businesses that fail to comply with the measures must improve and will be checked again after one week. After one week, if they cannot meet the requirement of prevention measures, they must shut down, according to Nam.

The inspection teams will frequently check businesses.

It is important to enhance prevention measures at industrial parks as HCM City has 17 export processing zones, industrial parks, and high-tech zones in which 1,500 companies operate, with 280,000 workers and 3,000 experts.