Hanoi tightens restrictions as COVID clusters spread in Vietnam

Vietnam's capital Hanoi urged its citizens to stay at home from Monday and ordered a halt to all non-essential services due to new clusters of COVID-19 infections in recent days, the authorities said on Sunday. The city, which had already halted indoor restaurant service and closed salons as well as gyms, also stopped rail and bus passenger services to and from provinces in the south which have seen the biggest increases. Hanoi has seen only over 400 cases since May, compared with more than 50,000 across the country, but authorities had already imposed restrictions on several parts of the city after the discovery of new outbreaks. "This outbreak is not the same as the previous ones," health minister Nguyen Thanh Long said at a meeting on COVID-19 prevention on Sunday. "We are preparing and standing ready for worse and worst scenarios." The country's civil aviation authority on Sunday ordered domestic airlines to suspend flights to and from southern parts until at least Aug. 1.<br/>