Central highlands mobile police to guard HCMC gateways

310 mobile police from three Central Highlands battalions arrived in HCMC Sunday evening to help man 12 gateways.

The police officers from the Central Highlands Mobile Police Regiment battalions in Dak Lak, Gia Lai and Lam Dong provinces have been taken to 12 checkpoints that border the provinces of Long An, Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Tay Ninh.

Each post will have 24 officers who will be divided to work three shifts so that they are on duty 24 hours a day alongside traffic police and army personnel to ensure order and help enforce pandemic containment and prevention measures. Each station will have one team leader from the HCMC Traffic Police Department.

Before starting their duty, the police officers were given rapid quick Covid-19 tests and inoculated with one jab of Covid-19 vaccine.

Each officer carries a bag containing medicines for stomach pain, diarrhea, fever, headache, first aid bandages, a raincoat and personal protective gear.

Each truck in the convoy carried 24 officers.

The convoys head towards HCMC's 12 main gateways.

Traffic police at Vinh Binh Bridge bordering Binh Duong Province instruct the mobile officers on how to check valid travel documents and passengers' travel history.

A mobile police wearing protective gear and medical gloves checks travel documents of a motorcyclist.

"There were some difficulties since I haven't got used to the new assignment yet, but I will try my best to help Ho Chi Minh City fight the epidemic," said Private First Class Hoang Gia Thuan.

Each checkpoint will be manned by a total of 60 people including the mobile police officers, traffic cops, soldiers, militia and self-defense forces.

The law enforcement presence at the checkpoints is being strengthened because starting Monday, August 23, the city will tighten its coronavirus restrictions, strictly requiring people to "stay where they are," isolating homes from homes, streets from streets and wards from wards.

In addition to the police, the 7th Military Region has sent nearly 2,000 officers and soldiers of Division 5 to help HCMC in its Covid-19 fight. As of Sunday, the city had recorded 175,994 cases and 6,538 deaths in the fourth wave that hit the country late April.