Day: February 13, 2022

Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has said that the country will urge the Group of 20 leading economies (G20) to establish a global body that can dispense emergency funds during a health crisis, functioning in a similar way to international financial institutions.

Under the current system, countries are “basically on their own” if they need emergency funds, vaccines, therapeutics or diagnostics. As G20 president this year, Indonesia will seek to change that, Reuters quoted Budi as saying at a news conference on February 11.

At the virtual World Economic Forum last month, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said his Indonesia will push for the establishment of a new global health agency during its presidency of the G20.

Widodo said the agency would strengthen the world’s health resilience and help make the global health system more inclusive and responsive to crises. Its task is to mobilise world health resources, including for financing health emergencies, purchasing vaccines, medicines and medical devices.

He called on the world’s major economies to co-finance the initiative and reach an agreement during Indonesia’s presidency of the G20 this year.

Indonesia holds the G20 presidency for the first time this year and has specified recovery from the pandemic as its core objective.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnam recorded 26,379 new COVID-19 cases in 24 hours as of 4pm on February 13, down 930 infections from one day before, according to the Ministry of Health.

The new cases consist of seven imported and 26,372 domestic ones, including 18,269 in the community.

Hanoi continued to report the highest number of infections with 2,940, followed by Hai Duong with 1,906, Nam Dinh with 1,894, and Hai Phong with 1,483.

The infection tally now stands at 2,510,860.

While 7,815 patients were given the all-clear on the day, 84 others succumbed to the coronavirus disease, adding up to the total recoveries and related deaths of 2,226,754 and 38,946, respectively.

As of February 12, 185,731,134 doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered, including 79,212,031 being the first dose, 74,723,923 the second, and 31,795,198 the third.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Cambodian Health Ministry’s spokeswoman Or Vandine on February 13 urged people to be more vigilant and to comply with health protocols amidst a rise of COVID-19 cases of the Omicron variant.

Complacency on Omicron will create a surge of virus transmission, she stressed

The ministry on the day registered 401 new COVID-19 cases, and all were confirmed to be with the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2.

No new fatalities have been reported for 40 straight days, the ministry said, adding that since the pandemic started in January 2020, Cambodia has logged a total of 123,443 COVID-19 cases with 118,804 recoveries and 3,015 deaths.

The spokeswoman called on the public, especially the youth, to remain vigilant and to get inoculated with receiving booster shots when their turns come.

Meanwhile, Singapore has received its first batch of Pfizer’s Paxlovid pill, after the Health Sciences Authority of Singapore (HSA) approved the oral tablet for the treatment of COVID-19 in adult patients who are at risk of severe disease.

Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said that this is the first oral anti-viral medicine approved for treatment of COVID-19 infection in Singapore. It will be prescribed and prioritised for those at higher risk of severe COVID-19 illness.

Paxlovid has been found to reduce the risk of COVID-19 related hospitalisation or death by 88.9 percent when treatment was given within three days of the onset of symptoms, according to an HSA review of clinical data based on an ongoing Pfizer study.

The pill should be taken twice a day for five days, HSA said, with treatment being initiated as soon as possible after a diagnosis has been made, within five days of the onset of COVID-19 symptoms.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Although it is put under control, the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has hit all aspects of the social life, seriously affecting businesses and people. The labour market is facing a risk of crisis when unemployment and underemployment rates rise sharply and workers’ incomes fall significantly.

In order to revive the labour market, create more jobs, and ensure the continuity of production and business activities, Vietnam is focusing on implementing many solutions aiming to flexibly and safely adapt to the new normal.

According to a report of the General Statistics Office, nearly 160,000 enterprises entered or re-entered the market in 2021, a deep decrease compared to the previous year, while 119,800 enterprises withdrew from the market, an increase of nearly 18 percent year-on-year.

Along with unemployment, the pandemic has made the labour market shift from urban to rural areas, and from major economic centres to provinces, leading to a risk of temporary labour shortage and the pressure to solve onsite jobs. The fact shows that the labour shortage in labour-intensive industries such as garment and textiles, footwear, e-commerce and retail has made many businesses unable to increase their capacity when production is recovered. Many are only operating at 75 percent compared to the time before the pandemic outbreak.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs has issued a programme to support the recovery and development of the labour market.

To increase the labour quality, the programme will focus on training employees, improving the quality of labour supply, stepping up digital transformation and in-person teaching in vocational education, and investing more in high-quality schools.

Minister Dao Ngoc Dung affirmed the need to build labour market support policies in line with respecting the operating principles of the market, and addressing inadequacies, especially factors that cause imbalance between labour supply and demand.

Source: Vietnam News Agency