Prime minister called on major urban cities in Vietnam to temporarily shut down non-essential services HANOI: Vietnam will ban gatherings of more than 20 people at a time for the next two weeks to help curb the spread of coronavirus, the Southeast Asian country’s prime minister, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, said on Thursday. Phuc also called on major urban cities in Vietnam to temporarily shut down non-essential services. Vietnam’s health ministry has confirmed 148 cases of the virus, but has not reported any deaths.