The Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control of Vietnam's central Quang Nam province has decided to place social distancing order on five of the province's districts and townships starting from Saturday following the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the community.

Four districts of Dai Loc, Duy Xuyen, Que Son and Thang Binh, and Dien Ban township of Quang Nam province will implement social distancing measures including limiting going out, keeping distance among people and wearing face masks from Saturday, Vietnam News Agency reported on Friday.

In order to reduce the risk of disease transmission in the community, deputy chairman of Quang Nam province's People's Committee Tran Van Tan required all people to stay at home and only go out for essential purposes including buying essential goods or in emergency cases such as health checkup and treatment, natural disasters and fire, the news agency reported.

In case people go out, they must wear face masks and are not allowed to have gatherings of more than two people in public places except for workplaces, schools and hospitals, according to the report.

A range of activities and operation of public transport are also temporarily halted, except for special cases, according to the report.

Quang Nam province has conducted COVID-19 testing for nearly 1,400 samples, among which seven returned positive with COVID-19.

Local authorities of the province have ordered a 14-day social distancing in its ancient Hoi An city starting from Friday as part of the efforts to tackle the COVID-19 epidemic.