Many people were fined for failure to wear face masks in public places and wrong parking on Thursday evening
Many people have been booked for violating pandemic prevention and control measures as they hang out with their friends along Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Street in Ho Chi Minh City.
Residents flocked to the Nguyen Hue promenade in downtown District 1 on Thursday evening to have a walk, get some fresh air, and chat with friends, according to the observation of Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reporters.
Many of them parked their motorbikes on the sidewalk to have a chat and grab a bite, but did not follow pandemic response measures including wearing face masks in public and keeping a safe distance.
At around 7:30 pm, a group of district-level police officers patrolled the street and booked dozens of people for wrong parking and violating pandemic prevention and control regulations.
Several violators did not cooperate at first but eventually had to accept administrative fines after the officers provided the evidence of their offenses.
In one of the cases, L.V.D., 25, was booked for failure to wear a face mask in public places and illegal parking.
As D. denied his wrongdoings, an officer showed the video footage of him pulling the face mask down to his chin while talking to his friend.
The offender had no other choice but to sign the violation record, facing fines worth VND1-3 million (US$44-132) for failure to wear face masks in public and VND200,000-300,000 ($8-13) for illegal parking.
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| Residents are booked for parking their motorbikes on the roadway along Nguyen Hue Walking Street in Ho Chi Minh City, October 21, 2021. Photo: D.T. / Tuoi Tre |
According to Major Dinh Tien Dung, deputy head of District 1’s traffic and order police unit, many people did not put on face masks or wore them improperly.
They only put on one when they saw police officers approaching, Dung continued.
“We decided to use cameras to film their violations from afar so that they won’t be able to deny their wrongdoings,” he said.
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| A young man pulls down his face mask while walking on Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Street in Ho Chi Minh City, October 21, 2021 in this supplied photo. |
Major Dung added that his unit had booked more than 200 of such violations on Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Street since the beginning of the week.
Ho Chi Minh City has been the hardest-hit locality since the fourth outbreak began on April 27, with over 422,200 local infections.
The city had imposed social distancing measures at various levels since May 31 before loosening multiple restrictions on October 1, because most of its adult population had been vaccinated with at least one dose.
