Authorities in the central beach city of Danang have imposed a ban on swimming at public beaches and only allow eateries to serve takeaways from June 20 afternoon amid rising Covid-19 infection.

The move was taken after confirming 24 more Covid-19 cases as of 12:00 pm on June 20. The city had gone more than 30 days without any community transmission cases.

People in Danang swim in the sea on June 19 afternoon. Photo: Quang Hai

The municipal authorities said that the pandemic evolution is turning more and more serious and that the swimming ban would remain in place until further notice.

Besides, all food and beverage establishments have been forced to temporarily shut down, and could only serve take-out orders under strict pandemic prevention measures.

New Covid-19 cases may carry the delta variant that is the fast-spreading version of the coronavirus, said Secretary of the Party Committee of Danang Nguyen Van Quang.

He asked the municipal Departments of Police and Health to strictly inspect the operation of Covid-19 control checkpoints throughout the city.

The municipal Party Chief ordered the functional units to strengthen contact tracing to quickly identify persons making close contact with Covid-19 patients and impose a severe fine to all the flouters of coronavirus prevention rules.

The famous tourist city has recorded 182 infections since late April as the fourth coronavirus wave hit the country.

At the time of writing, Vietnam’s tally Covid-19 patients have reached 13,117, including 5,054 recoveries and 64 deaths, since the pathogen first emerged in early 2020.