69-year-old Tran Sam (front) is taken to a three-bedroom apartment in the Cong Doan hotel in HCMC's Binh Thanh District on August 26, 2021. She would stay with two other families.(Photo by VnExpress/Dinh Van)

This is being done in a bid to prevent further spread of the virus, officials said.

Over 500 students, workers and elderly people were evacuated from their residences Thursday and moved to Cong Doan hotel in ward 27 and an apartment complex on Phan Chu Trinh street. They will stay there for the next 22 days. All of them had to test negative for the virus before moving into their new temporary accommodation. They will be provided with food to cook by themselves.

The district would prepare a school as the next refuge, increasing the total capacity to 2,000 people. Binh Thanh is the first district in Ho Chi Minh City to evacuate non-infected people from high-risk areas.