Looking back at the supply of essential goods to Vinh City residents when implementing 'stay where you are'

Supply efforts

To ensure that people have enough food during the period of social distancing measures at a level higher than Directive 16, and to effectively implement the policy"wherever you are, stay there"On August 25, Vinh City People's Committee issued Plan No. 194/PA-UBND on providing essential food for people in the city.

Accordingly, households in need of purchasing necessities must register via a form and send it to the Head of the Residential Group, then gather and send it to the block or hamlet and transfer the demand information to the supplier (or the Information Reception Board of the ward or commune).

After the people's vouchers for essential goods were processed, the youth shock force in the wards and teams“Shipper in blue shirt”will directly transfer necessities back to the blocks and hamlets so that the Head of the residential group can receive and distribute them to the people.

In addition to issuing a plan to provide essential food to people, the Vinh City People's Committee has also made a list of 55 goods supply establishments in 25 wards and communes, creating conditions for people to be able to buy essential goods without having to leave their homes.

After a period of doing shopping for people, in recent days, the young volunteers have had almost no time to rest, as they have been making 200-400 orders each day. Photo: Tien Dong

Ms. Thao in Tan Lam block, Hung Dung ward (Vinh city) said: Although during the epidemic, she could not go out, but through the block and ward, her family was able to buy necessary and sufficient necessities for the family.

Mr. Nguyen Khac Nghia - Chairman of the Ward Fatherland FrontHung Dungsaid: Currently, in the ward, there are a number of establishments providing food and essential goods for people that are allowed to operate. After the city issued a plan to provide essential food, the ward immediately implemented it for the people. The whole ward has 18 blocks, receiving an average of more than 200 orders per day.

Members of the Tan Lam Block Front Committee, Hung Dung Ward, re-check the goods before delivering them to households. Photo: Tien Dong

Mr. Nghia also said that people have clearly understood the risks of going out when the epidemic is complicated, so each family has prepared their own response plans. Regarding the household shopping order, the ward also thoroughly informed the households that each family can only buy at least once, every 3 days, to avoid sending vouchers and purchase orders every day, while the ward's force is very thin.

In Hung Loc commune, the Youth Union has mobilized 17 volunteers to join the "Green Shirt Shipper" team. On the peak day, the volunteer youth team here delivered 400 orders to households. In the past few days, the "Green Shirt Shipper" team has had almost no time to rest.

In the first three days, because people had stocked up on food, the amount of goods sold in supermarkets was too little; many units such as Big C and Vinmart had to throw away a large amount of meat and vegetables. But then, because food reserves were depleted and demand increased, there were times and places where the supply was not regular, slow or not enough to meet people's needs. Some supermarkets, due to staff cuts to reduce Covid-19 testing costs, were unable to supply people in time.

A representative of Big C supermarket said: People need to buy goods but the supermarket cannot deliver goods to their homes so they have to ask the ward or commune. Some wards and communes contacted to buy goods for people but were told that they can only go within the ward area so they cannot go to Big C to get them for people. For example, Le Loi ward can only work with Vinmart Le Loi.

Mega Market supermarket representative also said: The ability to supply vegetables, tubers, fruits 4.8 tons/day, pork, chicken, beef 5 tons/day, fish 4.2 tons/day, the demand of wards and communes is very large but there are difficulties with small orders. Besides, the delivery work of wards and communes is still slow, so the products delivered to people are sometimes not guaranteed. The number of employees preparing orders, packaging, and delivering goods is small, only 20%, so it is still difficult to synchronize delivery to people.

Volunteers buy goods for people at the supermarket. Photo: Tien Dong

According to the synthesis ofVinh City People's Committee, up to now, the facilities providing essential goods in the area are enough to supply all people during the period of social isolation. Of which, there are 10 food supply facilities which are large supermarkets, mini supermarket chains in the area, providing more than 57 tons of vegetables every day; more than 41 tons of meat of all kinds; 21.37 tons of fish; 89,000 eggs of all kinds; more than 3.2 tons of rice and 50 tons of dried food...

In fact, at the peak time on August 30, 10 large food supply establishments in the city sold only 24.8 tons of vegetables; 9.5 tons of meat; 1.5 tons of fish; 28,500 eggs and 0.65 tons of rice. This shows that the purchasing power of the people compared to the supply needs of the establishments is still very different.

Continue to do well in the supply chain

GrandfatherTran Quang Lam- Vice Chairman of Vinh City People's Committee said: At this time, the task of fighting the epidemic is the top priority, all people must stay in one place, so the food supply work needs to continue to be done well. There is no shortage of food and foodstuffs to meet the needs of people in Vinh City. In addition to the essential food supply facilities approved by the city, many wards and communes have also had good ways of connecting with benefactors, facilities providing free food, vegetables, tubers and fruits to provide for poor households. However, the difficulty is that after a period of implementation, the force in charge of purchasing and shipping goods to help people in wards and communes has shown signs of overload. Meanwhile, these forces themselves have to do many other things from participating in checkpoints, participating in epidemic prevention and control and ensuring urgent tasks in the area...

The city will closely monitor the development of the epidemic situation to make appropriate adjustments. If the epidemic situation temporarily subsides and the city switches to social distancing according to Directive 16, it will consider adding a plan to issue vouchers for people to go shopping on a rotating basis, or grant licenses to professional Shipper teams (strictly managed, tested according to regulations) to operate, in order to serve the essential needs of the people, contributing to reducing the burden on the "Blue Shirt Shipper" forces, as well as residential groups that buy goods for residents as at present.

Payment at Mega Market supermarket. Photo: Tran Chau