Big and small sports companies relying on Vietnam to source some of their apparel and footwear are breathing a sigh of relief as the factory lockdowns imposed in mid-July are due to be lifted on Oct. 1, as expected, although it will take months to take the production back to normal levels. Soldiers and police officers started to remove barriers and checkpoints between various districts of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) on Thursday, Sept. 30 to prepare the population for a return to more normal conditions after nearly four months of Covid-19 restrictions that have paralyzed manufacturing operations and other economic activities. Factory workers and store personnel will now be subject to random rapid testing, according to VNExpress. The move follows a major vaccination campaign that will continue, with a local pharmaceutical firm, Vabiotech, enabled to produce 40 million Sputnik V doses through next June. The country has already imported 50.7 million doses from the U.S., Russia and other sources, but only 33.8 percent of the country’s population of 98 million has been vaccinated so far, including 24.0 percent who have only received one shot. The vaccination rate in HCMC, where most of the factories are located, has reached a level of 48.0 percent

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