A public bus driver stands by his vehicle in HCMC, June 2021.
Photo by VnExpress/Huu Khoa. 

HCMC will suspend traditional and ride-hailing taxi services, public buses and inter-provincial buses from Sunday as a preventive measure against the spread of Covid-19. 

This is part of the city's tougher pandemic prevention measures to cope with rising infections, Tu Luong, deputy director of the HCMC Department of Information and Communications, said at a press conference on Saturday night.

This is the second time that passenger transport services in HCMC have been forced to stop operation since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country in early last year. In April 2020 amid a nationwide social distancing order, these means of transport were also suspended.

Luong said the pandemic situation in the city is getting worse and the number of new daily infections has been exceeding 100. The number of community transmissions is expected to continue rising next week, requiring city authorities to impose stricter prevention measures.

From Sunday, the city also bans gatherings of three or more outside workplaces, schools and hospitals, and requires people to keep a minimum distance of 1.5 meters in public. People are required to stay at home and only go out when necessary.

The city extended its two-week social distancing period by another two weeks on Tuesday under government's Directive 15, which bans gatherings of 20 people or more in one place and of 10 people or more outside workplaces, schools and hospitals.

HCMC has recorded 1,481 infections since late April.