One-party state wants high turnout for races that include first gay candidate
TOMOYA ONISHI, Nikkei staff writer
HANOI — Vietnam has gone on high alert nationwide to contain COVID-19 outbreaks in
the north, even as the country holds a general election Sunday for 69 million voters to select 500 members of parliament.
Vietnam reported 131 more local coronavirus cases Friday, pushing its community tally in the latest wave since April 27 to 1,892. Bac Giang Province, the epicenter, recorded 99 infections. Bac Giang and neighboring Bac Ninh — home to around 20 industrial parks and more than 20 industrial zones — essentially went into lockdown Monday.
Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam asked authorities to bolster efforts to prevent supply
chain disruptions, especially in the troubled northern provinces. Dam said the priority in the north is to ensure adequate disease precautions to let multinational manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics sustain their operations.
“Besides closely monitoring outbreaks and strictly managing workers in industrial parks,
Bac Ninh and Bac Giang need to quickly allow” businesses to resume operations if safety, hygiene and epidemiological measures can be ensured, Dam said Friday. He focused on enterprises involved in large supply chains stretching nationwide and globally. Samsung’s two plants in northern Vietnam handle more than half the company’s global smartphone output. But 13 local suppliers for Samsung in Bac Giang have been forced to shut temporarily.
More information: COVID wave challenges Vietnam’s national election Sunday, Nikkei asia review 22-5-21