Hanoi’s Huong Pagoda Festival suspended to curb spread of COVID-19
Hanoi’s outlying My Duc district was ordered to suspend the annual Huong Pagoda Festival and stop receiving visitors in an attempt to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Chu Xuan Dung has said.
Visitors went to the Huong Pagoda Festival in 2020 (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) - Hanoi’s outlying My Duc district was ordered to suspend the annual Huong Pagoda Festival and stop receiving visitors in an attempt to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Chu Xuan Dung has said.
Districts in the capital city hosting festivals are requested to suspend all activities until the 15th day of the first lunar month, Dung said at a meeting of the city’s committee for COVID-19 prevention and control on February 13.
During February 10-13, the first days of the Tet (Lunar New Year) holidays, Hanoi logged two new COVID-19 cases, including a two-month-old child, informed Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Health Hoang Duc Hanh.
The city had reported a total 30 infections in the community since the start of new outbreaks on January 27.
Hanh added that all employees at Noi Bai International Airport tested negative with the SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19.
𝓡 Hanoi's localities are asked to bolster inspections and impose fines on those who fail to wear face masks in public places. They must also devise scenarios and plans as workers will return to work after the Tet holidays end.
The Huong Pagoda Festival, the longest of its kind in Vietnam, begins on the sixth day of the lunar new year and lasts for three months./.
Huong, Tam Chuc and Bai Dinh pagodas are home to beautiful scenery and relics showing the development of Buddhism in Vietnam. They have formed a tourist route attracting pilgrims and visitors.
Within the first five days of the Lunar New Year 2020, Huong Son – Perfume (Huong) pagoda relic complex in Hanoi’s outlying district of My Duc welcomed some 150,000 tourist arrivals.
Huong (Perfume) pagoda is well-known as not only a religious site, but also a great sight-seeing spot in the country. During its festival, the nation’s most elaborate one, which lasts from the beginning of January to the end of March of the lunar calendar, the pagoda attracts millions of pilgrims and visitors.
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Visitors went to the Huong Pagoda Festival in 2020 (Photo: VNA) 
