As of Monday, Thu Duc City and 15 districts have achieved all Health Ministry criteria to "basically control the pandemic" and requested authorities for official recognition.

In the past three days, Districts 4, Binh Thanh and Hoc Mon have also achieved this status, leaving just Binh Tan and Binh Chanh off the list, Pham Duc Hai, deputy head of Ho Chi Minh City's Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control, told a press meeting Thursday.

The meeting took place at a time when the city had been reopened for a week after going four months under various levels of social distancing.

In the past week, more than 9,200 businesses had resumed operation in the city. Of these are 972 out of a total 1,412 in industrial parks and export processing zones, and 88 out of 118 in Saigon Hi-Tech Park.

For the latest Covid-19 wave that hit Vietnam in late April, HCMC has recorded nearly 405,200 cases, almost half of the national tally. Of the patients, nearly 21,000 are still under treatment, more than 15,500 have died and the rest have recovered.

As of Friday, more than seven million city residents have been vaccinated, with nearly five million double-jabbed.