Day: February 27, 2022

Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Chu Ngoc Anh on February 27 warned the capital city will see the peak of the current COVID-19 surge in the middle of March.

Experts have predicted that the number of new cases in the city will keep rising in the next two weeks and reach its peak afterwards, depending on the prevention and control work, Anh said.

He was speaking at a meeting with local authorities in Hanoi on measures to reduce pressure for grassroots-level medical workers, those who work at the health clinics of wards and communes.

The situation is complicated in Hanoi as there are more than 10,000 new patients reported on a daily basis, and 76 communes and wards (12.8 percent of the total) have had their risk levels raised to Level 3 (high risk), the city’s chair said.

However, 96 percent of the patients are mild cases that express no symptoms, and 95 percent are being treated at home.

Anh asked the director of the city’s Department of Health to form an inter-sectoral working group with clear points of contact to review and report on the urgent issues every day.

He also asked the health authorities to clarify how many patients a communal medical worker can take care of per day, and identify the number of workers needed for each day so other sectors can support and coordinate.

In terms of school reopening, director of the city’s Department of Education and Training Tran The Cuong said 15 districts had asked to let their students, who are in grade 1-6, to study online again to ensure their safety, as they had not been vaccinated.

The city will have the final decision after reviewing reports by the education department, chairman Anh said./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

German development agency GIZ on February 26 hosted a virtual event called “Innovate for Impact” to attract new business ideas from German alumni who are interested in applying them in Vietnam.

Part of the 12-month project “Business Ideas for Development”, the event aimed to connect successful entrepreneurs with German alumni who wish to do business in Vietnam this year.

It will be followed by a start-up training course “Business Ideas for Development” (BID Vietnam 2.0). The three most outstanding impact start-up ideas will go through to the next rounds – start-up consultation and start-up acceleration – which will take place in March 2023.

BID, a component of the GIZ’s Programme Migration and Diaspora (PMD), provides knowledge and consultation for German alumni to translate their innovative ideas and what they had learnt in their country into reality for sustainable development goals in Vietnam.

Pham Ngoc Linh from GIZ said the in the first year, BID supported more than 20 German alumni and provided training for five startups with the most sustainable impact ideas in the fields of agriculture, tourism and environment.

Four had received 5,000 EUR (about 5,640 USD) each in funding to establish their business, develop brands and conduct trial production, Linh said./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vice President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee Phung Khanh Tai had a working session with Chief Executive Director of the People’s Association (PA) of Singapore Lim Hock Yu in the city state on February 25.

The two sides expressed their delight at the singing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the exchange programme for 2022 – 2024, noting that this is a basis for them to share experience to help bolster the two peoples’ friendship and the Vietnam – Singapore strategic partnership in a result-oriented manner.

Tai, who was accompanying Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc during a State visit to Singapore from February 24 to 26, held that apart from maintaining high-level mutual visits, it is also necessary to exchange experience in connecting and building communities, encouraging people to engage in social management, and linking people and the government. He also suggested boosting dissemination about traditions, history, and culture to the two peoples.

He asked the PA and the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs to increase assistance in foreign language training and share experience in connecting and building communities with the VFF staff in the time ahead.

Showing his support for his guest’s opinions, Lim called on both sides to further enhance coordination to carry out the freshly signed MoU and Tai’s proposals.

At the meeting, the two officials invited the VFF and the PA to send delegations to each other in 2022./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

A total 86,990 cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the past 24 hours from 4pm February 26 to 4pm February 27, according to the Ministry of Health.

Hanoi continued to record the highest number of infections with 11,517 cases, followed by Quang Ninh with 5,997.

The national tally now stands at 3,321,005 cases, with a total of 205 infections of Omicron.

The day also saw 35,866 people given the all-clear and 94 deaths.

February 26 witnessed 125,533 doses of vaccines administered, raising the total to 193,408,292./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) has been honoured at Corporate Excellence Category at the 2022 Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards (APEA) held in Ho Chi Minh City under the theme “The Epitome of Success.”

It was the fourth consecutive times the State-run corporation has earned the awards.

The AVC operates 22 airports across the country, including nine international and 13 domestic airports.

Launched in 2007, the APEA is a regional award recognition programme hounouring entrepreneurial excellence.

APEA honours business leaders and organisations who have shown outstanding performance and tenacity in developing successful businesses, whilst not neglecting the social responsibilities that come with leadership.

It has so far connected business leaders from 14 countries in Asia./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The State Bank of Vietnam set the daily reference exchange rate for the US dollar at 23,140 VND/USD on February 28, down 6 VND from the last working day of previous week (February 25).

With the current trading band of +/- 3 percent, the ceiling rate applicable to commercial banks during the day is 23,834 VND/USD and the floor rate 22,446 VND/USD.

The opening-hour rates at commercial banks showed a declining trend.

At 8:40am, Vietcombank listed the buying rate at 22,640 VND/USD and the selling rate at 22,950 VND/USD, both down 30 VND from February 25.

BIDV kept both rates unchanged at 22,700 VND/USD (buying) and 22,980 VND/USD (selling).

During the week from February 21 to 25, the reference exchange rate fluctuated variably but ended the week up 13 VND from the rate on Monday./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

About 12,000 people in Malaysia had to evacuate from their homes after heavy rain caused flooding in the country’s northern states on weekends, reported local media.

Official data showed that 11,831 people housed in flood relief centres in the northern states of Kelantan and Terengganu as at 4.30pm on February 27.

Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob wrote in a Facebook post that the authorities were being mobilised to evacuate victims, adding that many of those affected are being rescued and are taken to safer places.

The Malaysian Meteorological Department warned that bad weather is to continue in these states, with heavy rain also expected in much of the peninsula as well as in parts of Borneo island.

A warning was also issued for strong winds and stormy seas, particularly in the East Sea and the northern tip of the Malacca Strait.

Earlier, heavy monsoon rains from mid-December to early January led to some of the country’s worst flooding in decades.

About 50 people were killed and 125,000 people were forced to leave their homes, with the authorities recording more than 1.45 billion USD in damage./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

A year-on-year drop of 15.4 percent was recorded in the number of traffic accidents from January 15 to February 14 to 1,011 cases, according to the National Traffic Safety Committee.

The committee said that 3.73 percent and 25.4 percent declines were also seen in the number of deaths and injuries, respectively, to 620 and 661.

Of the accidents, 1,000 cases were on road, claiming 614 lives and injuring 657 others, falling by 15.11 percent, 2.69 percent and 25.59 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, there were seven railway accidents, and four waterway and no maritime accidents.

The figures raised the total number of accidents in the first two months of 2022 to 1,974, with 1,185 and 1,260 injuries. Compared to the same period in 2021, the number of cases fell 21.51 percent, while the number of deaths and injuries dropped 7.06 percent a d 30.88 percent, respectively./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency