A health worker tends to Patient 91 at the Cho Ray Hospital in HCM City. The patient, the most severe case so far, has shown much improvement

Vietnam has no new COVID-19 cases to report on June 3 morning, and this is also the 48th straight day since April 16 morning without locally-infected cases in the country, the national steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and control said.

Up to 188 of the 328 confirmed infections so far were imported and quarantined upon their arrival.

Meanwhile, 298 or almost 91 percent of all patients have recovered from the coronavirus disease.

The 30 remainders are undergoing treatment in hospitals nationwide and basically in stable condition. Among them, five have tested negative for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, once and five others at least twice.

There are 8,169 people in quarantine at present, including 103 in hospitals, 7,104 in other quarantine facilities, and 962 at home.

Regarding the most severe case – Patient 91, a British man treated at the Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, his health has shown much improvement, the treatment sub-committee said, noting that he has gained full consciousness and been able to respond to all instructions by health workers./.

Hanoi enforces quarantine requirements for all arrivals

The Hanoi People's Committee has issued Official Letter on the discontinuation of quarantine for people certified by the competent authority as having undergone medical isolation.

The Hanoi city government has required all people on entry to Vietnam to undergo quarantine for at least 14 days and health supervision for an additional 14 days to ensure no infection in the community, Kinhtedothi.vn reported.

On May 28, the Hanoi People's Committee issued Official Letter on the discontinuation of quarantine for people certified by the competent authority as having undergone medical isolation.

As per the Official Letter, the People's Committees of districts and towns are in charge of asking enterprises that employ foreigners take preventive measures against Covid-19 .

The compulsory measures are still in place, including wearing of face masks in public places, outdoors and on public transports, regularly hand wash with soap or antiseptic solution.

On April 8, Hanoi requested strict quarantine on foreigners. Accordingly, foreigners entering Vietnam are subject to mandatory medical declaration, safety screening measures and have to undergo quarantine. Foreigners showing signs of fever, cough, shortness of breath will immediately be taken to medical facilities for isolation and treatment.

This is in line with the Vietnamese government's requirement that all Vietnamese nationals and foreigners entering Vietnam undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine from March 18. The country has earlier suspended visa issuance to foreign nationals.

Foreigners who are experts, business executives, high-tech experts bearing papers certifying they are negative for Covid-19 issued by competent authorities of the country of origin and approved by Vietnam will be allowed entry and must be strictly isolated. These cases may undergo concentrated quarantine at indicated hotels in Hanoi city if they are willing to pay for all expenses.

Foreigners in possession of diplomatic or official passports, if they are in good health, show no signs of illness and their health condition is guaranteed by their diplomatic missions may be quarantined at the missions or at their residences for 14 days after entering Vietnam.

Foreigners who are under quarantine at concentrated centers, home, or residences and have tested negative will be isolated for another 14 days in accordance with regulations.

As of late June 2, Vietnam has reported 328 people positive with the coronavirus, of them 298 have recovered and been discharged from hospital.

HCM City: Nine hospitals to treat patients in quarantine

Medical workers tend to a COVID-19 patient

The HCM City Department of Health has assigned nine local hospitals to take care of patients in need of healthcare during their period of quarantine, in order to ensure regulations regarding COVID-19 prevention and control are met.

The nine are Nhan Dan 115 Hospital, Nhan Dan Gia Dinh Hospital, Nguyen Tri Phuong Hospital, Nhi Dong I Hospital, Nhi Dong II Hospital, Tu Du Hospital, Hung Vuong Hospital, FV Hospital, and Vinmec Central Park General Hospital.

They are to receive people with serious illness and in need of healthcare services after entering HCM City via Tan Son Nhat International Airport. The hospitals will also take care of patients with newly-emerged acute symptoms or who are in need of checks for chronic diseases.

The nine hospitals will review and reinforce their facilities and quarantine area and establish COVID-19 treatment procedures in accordance with Ministry of Health directions.

During their quarantine period at hospitals, if any patient tests positive for COVID-19 then the hospital must immediately report to the Centre for Disease Control, the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, or any hospital assigned to treat COVID-19 patients.

The city’s Department of Health also anticipates that more foreign and Vietnamese patients seeking medical treatment overseas will want to return to Vietnam and access medical treatment at hospitals in the city.

Its health sector has asked local healthcare establishments to thoroughly evaluate patients’ immigration history before admitting them, in order to ensure regulations on COVID-19 prevention and control are met.

Those who haven’t finished a 14-day quarantine period will be sent to temporary quarantine areas within the hospitals./.

Hanoi shares COVID-19 response experience with world cities

Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung shared COVID-19 prevention and control experience with mayors of other cities in the world during an online mayoral meeting within the framework of the Cities Against COVID-19 (CAC) Global Summit on June 2.

Speaking at the meeting, which attracted the presence of mayors of 42 cities around the world, Chung appreciated the initiative to hold the global summit of Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, as this is one of the effective measures to deal with the pandemic and serves as a premise for the cities to cooperate in addressing economic impact caused by the pandemic.

He told participants that Hanoi, with a population of over 10 million, has so far reported 114 coronavirus infections, of whom 113 have been given the all-clear.

The city has gone through 48 days without any community transmission, he stated, adding that there have been 328 cases and no fatality confirmed in Vietnam so far.

The Hanoi leader attributed the positive results to the sound leadership of leaders at all levels. Specifically, right after the epidemic broke out, Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong issued an appeal to the entire nation to take drastic prevention measures, and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc issued many directives on disease prevention and control based on the spirit of fighting epidemic like fighting an enemy, and prioritising people’s health over economic benefits.

Sharing the capital city’s experience, Chung said that Hanoi quickly traced people with possible contact with COVID-19 patients. All people with direct contacts have been quarantined at designated facilities, while those with indirect contacts have been quarantined at their houses under the close monitoring of grassroots health clinics. At peak times, over 50,000 people were quarantined at concentrated facilities, and an entire commune with more than 12,000 people were isolated.

In addition to rapid response and contact tracing, Hanoi has provided information about the epidemic publicly and transparently via different means of communication, and developed the Hanoi Smartcity app to monitor quarantined people, he added.

In his remarks, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon expressed his hope to build an inter-city cooperation network to share and facilitate the implementation of measures in response to newly-emerging infectious diseases.

Participating cities adopted the Seoul Statement on solidarity and cooperation to fight the COVID-19 pandemic./.

Coronavirus still a challenge in some Southeast Asian countries

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 is still spreading in Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia, as they reported many more cases on June 2.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Health confirmed an additional 609 infections and 22 deaths from COVID-19 on the day, raising the total to 27,549 and 1,663, respectively.

Some 7,935 patients in the country have fully recovered to date.

In the Philippines, the number of COVID-19 cases and fatalities reached 18,997 and 966, respectively, with the country confirming 359 new infections and six deaths on June 2.

Health authorities in Malaysia, meanwhile, reported 20 new cases, for 7,877 in total. The number of fatalities remains at 115, however, as the country did not record any deaths on the day./.

Five more patients recover from COVID-19, total at 298

Five more COVID-19 patients were given the all-clear on June 2, bringing Vietnam’s total recoveries to 298, according to the treatment subcommittee under the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

The five recoveries - one at the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases and four at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi - are now in a stable condition, with no fever, cough, or breathing difficulties. They will be under further quarantine and medical monitoring for 14 days.

A 50-year-old female patient at the HCM City hospital, known as Patient 278, was admitted on May 7. Her test results came back negative for the novel coronavirus on May 23, 26, and 29.

Meanwhile, Patients 294, 299, 307 and 311, all admitted to the Hanoi-based hospital in May, have tested negative for the virus at least twice.

As of the afternoon of June 2, 298 of the 328 COVID-19 patients in Vietnam had recovered. The remainder are being treated at medical facilities.

Singapore to build new dorms for guest workers

Singapore plans to build more 11 dormitories for 60,000 migrant workers by the end of this year.

National Development Minister Lawrence Wong on June 1 said the country will continue upgrading and building new dormitories over the next few years to house up to 100,000 workers.

Currently, Singapore is home to 323,000 foreign workers staying in 43 dormitories.

As of March 2020, Singapore counted 720,800 migrant workers, including 287,800 working in the field of construction and the remainders are active in navigation, processing and services./.

Enterprises present medical supplies to Vietnamese in RoK amid COVID-19

Copper Mountain Energy and Hwaseung Vina LLC have presented medical equipment to Vietnamese citizens in the Republic of Korea (RoK) to cope with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Including 25,000 face masks, the equipment was handed over to the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs at a ceremony in Hanoi on June 2.

Nguyen Hoanh Nam, Deputy Head of the Committee, lauded the good deed in the context of the pandemic, saying that contributions to the fight reflect the social responsibility of enterprises.

Support from domestic agencies, collectives, and individuals for overseas Vietnamese also demonstrates national unity and contributes to affirming that the Vietnamese community in other countries forms an integral part of the Vietnamese nation, he stressed.

According to the Committee, Vietnamese collectives and individuals abroad have sent more than 34 billion VND (nearly 1.5 million USD) as well as medical equipment to the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee, the Vietnam Red Cross Society, and a number of hospitals that are providing treatment to COVID-19 patients.

The Vietnamese community in the RoK also contributed more than 160 million VND in support of the pandemic fight./.

DFC highly appreciative of medical supply co-operation with Vietnam

Adam Boehle, CEO of the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), has expressed his appreciation for the effective co-ordination between Vietnam and the United States to produce and distribute medical supplies and protective equipment as a means of fighting the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Ha Kim Ngoc presents made-in-Vietnam face masks as gift to Adam Boehle, CEO of the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) (Photo: VNA)
During a meeting held in Washington DC on June 2 with the Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Ha Kim Ngoc, Boehler stated that the DFC always places great importance on co-operative efforts and sees Vietnam as a preferred partner in future US-based projects. 

As a development finance agency for the US Government, the DFC is currently initiating a range of measures to support investment projects in developing countries globally, especially those in energy, infrastructure, and the digital economy.

At a regional level, the DFC pays close attention to supporting development projects that are underway in the Greater Mekong Sub-region, as well as those which specialise in producing strategic products that are suitable for the supply chain of the US, the DFC chief explained to the Vietnamese diplomat.

He added his hopes that agreements can be reached in an effective manner during working meetings held between the DFC and various Vietnamese agencies, including the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

In response, Ambassador Ngoc shared the nation’s experience in containing the COVID-19, as well as its priorities in efforts to initiate an economic recovery, whilst simultaneously promoting regional and global co-operation in its role as the ASEAN Chair 2020.

The Vietnamese diplomat also applauded the DFC’s role and voiced his hope that both sides will soon move to implement specific co-operation projects regionally.

With this year marking 25 years since the normalisation of diplomatic ties between the two countries, Ambassador Ngoc called on the DFC to continue to make contributions to relevant activities in the near future, including joining both the ASEAN-US and Vietnam-US conferences regarding investment co-operation within the region.

To mark the occasion, the Vietnamese diplomat presented made-in-Vietnam face masks as gifts to DFC staff. In return, Boehler and representatives from DFC expressed their sincere thanks for efforts made by the Vietnamese Embassy and related businesses to share their experience, while noting their appreciation for the quality of the face masks produced by the country.

Vietnam seeks Japan’s US$500-million loan to address Covid-19 impacts

Japan has been a major donor of official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam, estimated at US$24 billion, or 26.4% of total borrowings of the Vietnamese government.

Vietnam is looking for a loan in a range of US$300 – 500 million from the Japanese government to address impacts of Covid-19, according to Vietnamese Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung.

As the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is cooperating with the World Bank to finalize a policy framework for such a type of loan, Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance and other government agencies would study the feasibility of the policy, Dung said at a meeting with Japan’s newly-appointed Ambassador to Vietnam Yamada Takio on June 1.

According to Dung, Vietnam – Japan relations are at its peak since the establishment of diplomatic relation in September 1973.

“Japan has become a comprehensive strategic partner of Vietnam in all spheres, particularly in economic, trade and investment activities,” Dung said.

As of 2019, Japan remained Vietnam’s second largest investor with a combined commitments of US$59.3 billion. Over the past few years, Japan has also been at the top in terms of trade revenue among 200 countries and territories having trade relation with Vietnam.

Moreover, Japan has been a major donor of official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam, estimated at US$24 billion, or 26.4% of total borrowings of the Vietnamese government.

Funds from Japan have been used for multiple purposes such as transportation, energy, healthcare and education, contributing significantly to Vietnam’s economic development and raising people’s living standard, Dung said.

Ambassador Takio said one of his key tasks is to enhance bilateral economic cooperation, and expressed hope to build close ties with the Ministry of Finance.

Takio spoke highly of Vietnam’s achievements in economic development, including fast economic growth, low inflation, declining fiscal deficit and lower public debt ratio.

Takio added as the world is seeing growing needs to diversify the global value chain and Vietnam has huge potential to take this opportunity for further growth.

The Japanese ambassador expected Vietnam to improve its credit rating and infrastructure system, the two major factors supporting the country’s development.