Sofia bus station

HCMC Transport Department proposes stopping bus advertising The Saigon Times Buses on a street in HCMC display advertisements. The HCMC Department of Transport has proposed stopping bus advertising - PHOTO: VNA HCMC - The HCMC Department of Transport has proposed that the city stop bus advertising due to low demand. Since 2017, only one business won the bid for the right to advertise on buses in the city. The three-year package worth VND162 billion has just expired. All other tenders for bus advertising in the city failed to attract businesses although the Transport Department has lowered the charges, relaxed the requirements and offered flexible payment options. According to the head of an advertising company, the demand for outdoor advertising, including bus advertising, in the city was high 10 years ago, but has dropped drastically as clients are switching to online advertising. Besides this, many buses in HCMC have become old and worn out, while the prices of bus advertising are higher than that of online advertising. Moreover, the HCMC Transport Department said the Covid-19 pandemic has severely affected the operations of the city’s bus system. HCMC now has over 2,300 buses running on 137 routes. The city spends more than VND1 trillion to subsidize its bus system every year. If businesses advertised on all of the buses, the city would earn more than VND100 billion from bus advertising annually. …

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The Hanoitimes - Vital transport projects in Hanoi have been suspended until April 15 with a view to curbing mass gatherings and preventing Covid-19 from spreading. Construction of Hanoi's vital transport projects, including the Nhon - Hanoi Station sky train and the viaduct of Ring Road 2, has been temporarily stopped following the government directive on enhancing social distancing, VnExpress reported. Those works have been suspended until April 15 with a view to curbing mass gatherings and containing the Covid-19 pandemic. A section of the Nhon - Hanoi Station metro project on Kim Ma Street on April 2. Photo: VNE Currently, no workers are seen on the construction site of the Nhon - Hanoi Station sky train but only a dozen of machines which are gathered in one place and covered. Before Hanoi entered social distancing, around a thousand workers and experts were present at the site day and night. After 10 years, the project’s underground sections are still being dug. The Hanoi Metropolitan Railway Management Board said that the resumption of works depends on the Covid-19 evolution. Similarly, the construction site of Viaduct of Ring Road 2 is empty as workers have 15 days off though the viaduct is expected to be inaugurated at the end of this year. Works on the Ring Road 3 viaduct project from Mai Dich overpass Thang Long bridge are still underway, however only a dozen of workers are seen on their site. Pham Anh Tu, head of Project Management Department 1 under Ministry of Transport, explained that this is a key project, and needs to be completed as the earnest time possible. However, workers have to comply with preventive measures such as body temperature check, hand sanitization and use of face masks. Some 90% of the project has been completed and it is expected to be inaugurated and opened to traffic by the year-end. As of April 3, Vietnam has recorded 233 Covid-19 patients, of which 75 have been cured and discharged from …

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The Hanoitimes - The Hanoi Center for Disease Prevention and Control will set up quick Covid-19 testing booths in all 30 districts in the city. The Hanoi city government has decided to set up five more rapid Covid-19 testing booths for mass testing in urban districts, VnExpress quoted Deputy Director of the Hanoi Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) Khong Minh Tuan as saying. Tuan said that the total nine booths are located in eight urban districts of Hoan Kiem, Long Bien, Cau Giay, Hoang Mai, Ha Dong, Dong Da, Hai Ba Trung, Ba Dinh and suburban Thanh Oai. Citizens are sampled at a quick Covid-19 testing station in Hanoi’s Dong Da district. Photo: Giang Huy The Hanoi CDC will set up rapid Covid-19 testing booths in all 30 districts in the city. However, the process depends on the number of test kits to be delivered. Besides, in face of the shortage of health workers with expertise in sampling and testing, the Hanoi CDC is organizing training courses for 800 employees. People who will be sampled for quick testing are Covid-19 patients, caregivers, interns and those who visited Bach Mai Hospital’s canteen between March 10 and 28. About 16,000 people are subject to this category, according to statistics of the Hanoi Department of Health. Hanoi began rapid Covid-19 testing on March 31. Quick test kits made in South Korea will be used at the booths and they will show results after 10 minutes analyzing blood samples. As of April 2 night, 1,782 people have used this testing service, six of them were positive for coronavirus but the tests came out negative when diagnosed again by Realtime RT-PCR in labs. At the time of writing, Vietnam has recorded 233 Covid-19 patients, of them 85 have been cured and discharged from hospital. Hanoi reported 105 active coronavirus-infected cases, the largest number in the country. …

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