Da Nang suspends sort of passenger transports

According to Mr. Le Quang Nam, Vice Chairman of Da Nang City People’s Committee, announced that the city decided to declare the suspension of passenger transport activities by cars and motorbikes. This action is taken to prevent and control COVID-19 more effectively, in the context that the city is currently recording up to 135 positive cases of SARS-COV2 (data of 16/5).

According to the leader of Da Nang, the transportation of passengers by taxi, contract vehicles with less than 9 seats (including hailing vehicles) will only be allowed to continue when there is an official announcement in the near future.

Other activities such as transporting passengers by motorbike, rudimentary vehicles, or transporting goods of ride-hailing delivery services will also be suspended. All shippers, taxi drivers, and contract chauffeurs are also required to go to the medical centrals where they reside to make a medical declaration and register to COVID-19 testing.

According to statistics by the Department of Transport of Da Nang, in the city, there are currently nearly 4.600 drivers of passenger transport by 2-wheel motorcycles. However, the number of people who have been tested SARS-COV2 is only 1.200.

Meanwhile, Da Nang has about 2.178 people who are engaged in the business of transporting cars with less than 9 seats (grab car), but up to 700 people have not been tested. They maybe have left the residence area before the announcement.

For 1.576 taxi drivers, so far, the companies have coordinated to test 1.232 people, the rest have not been tested for COVID-19.

Up to now, the city has appeared many cases of COVID-19 transmission in the community. Among them, there are many cases at restaurants, shippers – home delivery, taxis… The health sector in districts is therefore also concerned, warning about the risk of infection from taxi drivers, passengers or shippers.

If workers in this group are infected with SARS-COV2, tracing will face many difficulties, and also create a great risk of community infection. Because they often move in a wide range and come into contact with many people. Even many of them do not have a clear residential address. In addition, shippers also regularly deliver goods in high-risk areas such as hotels, hospitals, concentrated isolation areas, etc.

During this ripple of epidemics in the city, epidemiological investigations indicated that many people operating in this industry group were positive for COVID-19 due to being related to previous patients. On May 16, Da Nang recorded a Grab car driver who attended two weddings and transported many passengers was tested positive COVID-19.

Therefore, suspending the operations of Grab, shippers and taxi drivers is the right and timely decision to limit the spread of COVID-19 to the community. At the meeting of the city’s steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and control, Chairman of the City People’s Committee – Mr. Le Trung Chinh commented that the activities of workers in this industry group are closely related to the daily life of all of the people, so the government is keen on this group of people.

Previously, from 0:00 on May 13, Da Nang banned gatherings of more than 5 people in public places.