Panic buying in Vietnam's largest city before tighter COVID-19 lockdown

FILE PHOTO: A man living in an area under lockdown receives food through a barricade during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam July 20, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam's plan to prohibit residents of Ho Chi Minh City from leaving their homes from Monday has triggered panic buying in the epicentre of its worst coronavirus outbreak.

The scramble for purchases is hurting efforts in the nation's largest city to contain the spiralling COVID-19 outbreak, said the official Vietnam News Agency.