Politics

Sao Vàng Rubber Factory in Thanh Xuân District. Photo nhandan.com.vn

HÀ NỘI – Relocating universities, hospitals, and polluted production facilities to reduce population pressure on the central areas of Hà Nội is an important goal of the six residential planning projects in four core inner-city districts.

However, the relocation process has been delayed for many years, leaving central Hà Nội exposed to the downfalls of rapid urbanisation.

Transport infrastructure has not been developed synchronously and planning of public works, green spaces and the school system has been below par.

In March, Hà Nội’s People’s Committee approved six urban planning for the four core inner-city districts of Hoàn Kiếm, Ba Đình, Hai Bà Trưng and Đống Đa.

The planning projects on 2,700ha aims to reduce the population to 672,000 people from 1.2 million people in the four districts and improve the social and technical infrastructure of the city.

Hanoians have long been waiting for concrete measures from the municipal government to bring planning to life, especially the relocation of universities, hospitals and polluted production facilities to overcome environmental pollution, traffic jams ad save land for public spaces.

“This was a very good policy. I, like many people, expected the project to be realised soon,” said Võ Thị Huệ, a resident in Hai Bà Trưng District’s Vĩnh Tuy Ward.

“The fact that industrial production plants were located in densely populated residential areas in central districts was completely inappropriate, it was necessary to quickly find solutions to bring them out of the inner city,” said Huệ.

In Vĩnh Tuy Ward, Đông Xuân Knitting Company still maintains some production units which cause smoke and dust pollution for residential areas nearby.

Local people have petitioned authorities many times but the company was not relocated even after it built a new factory in Hưng Yên Province and put it into operation.

Vũ Ngọc Quý, a resident in Đống Đa District’s Kim Liên Ward, said to reduce traffic pressure in the four central districts with a very large population, moving universities and hospitals to the outskirts is a sound policy.

A policy to relocate the headquarters of ministries, branches and central agencies out of Hà Nội’s inner city was approved in a Government resolution in 2008.

In January 2015, then-Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng issued Decision No 130/QD-TTg on measures, the relocation schedule and the use of land in central districts after the relocation of industrial production facilities, hospitals and higher education and vocational training establishments.

However, out of nine ministries, branches and central agencies that have completed construction investment and moved to work at new headquarters, only one handed over its old headquarters.

As for universities and colleges, there are 26 establishments in the four central districts, but so far, only the University of Community Health in Ba Đình District has relocated.

As for polluting establishments, in 2016, the Capital Law determined the roadmap for relocating 117 establishments in 12 districts out of the inner city by 2020.

However, the relocation work has been virtually stagnant.

A representative of the Hà Nội Department of Natural Resources and Environment said the department has been reviewing and adjusting facilities that have to be relocated after the approval of the six residential planning projects.

Recently, the Ministry of Construction acknowledged relocation was very necessary. However, the organisation and implementation of relocation were still slow.

According to the ministry, there were many reasons leading to this situation such as changes in guidelines, policies and laws affecting the progress of planning and relocation projects.

The implementation process encountered many difficulties in mobilising resources and arranging capital while relocation requires huge budgets.

In addition, the initiative, co-ordination and implementation work from agencies was not sufficient.

Dr Đào Ngọc Nghiêm, vice president of Việt Nam Urban Development Planning Association, said one of the reasons ministries and branches were slow to move to the suburban areas and hand over the land to Hà Nội authorities was because they were entangled in the Land Law.

“Because this law regulates that headquarters of ministries, branches, industrial establishments, universities, etc., are allocated land for a definite time and within the allocated time limit, they have full rights to use and exploit the land,” said Nghiêm.

“Therefore, many units have kept the old headquarters despite being allocated land to build new ones because they are still within the time limit for land allocation,” he said.

“Thus, Hà Nội needed a specific mechanism to revoke the land soon after the units relocate. At that time, the urban areas would have more favourable factors to solve problems such as population expansion and additional land for infrastructure development,” he said.

To hasten the relocation of industrial production facilities, the Hà Nội People’s Committee has established a steering committee for relocation, built a list of works that need to be relocated and proposed criteria and roadmaps for relocation in 12 inner-city districts, according to the Ministry of Construction.

For the relocation of medical, education and training facilities, the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education are implementing separate planning programmes on their relocation.

According to Nguyễn Đức Hùng, vice director of Hà Nội Planning and Construction Institute, one of the most important goals of the zoning plan of the historic inner city districts was to relocate the headquarters of ministries, branches and universities.

“At that time, it would create a land fund of about 176ha to build public works and green spaces that is now very lacking, and moving about 100,000 people out of the areas,” Hùng said.

“However, the actual implementation is not simple. Along with Hà Nội’s responsibility, the drastic participation of all levels, branches, the whole political system is needed with high determination to soon achieve the goals,” he added. – VNS

The Hospital for Tropical Diseases in HCM City has been locked down because 55 staff have tested positive for the coronavirus. VNA/VNS Photo Thu Hương

Gia Lộc

HCM CITY — Hospitals in HCM City are strengthening preventive measures against COVID-19 after 55 employees, mostly in administrative departments, at the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases tested positive for coronavirus.

Speaking at an online meeting on Monday, Nguyễn Tấn Bỉnh, head of the city’s Department of Health, said that 55 of 924 employees at the hospital had tested positive.

All of these employees had received two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Most of the positive cases are employed in the IT and administrative departments. The hospital’s doctors and nurses have all tested negative for coronavirus.

Test results show that the viral load of the positive cases was low, possibly because they had already received two doses of the vaccine.

The staff who tested positive are healthy and are not in serious condition, and have no symptoms.

A contagious-disease expert at the city Children’s Hospital No 1, Trương Hữu Khanh, said: “No vaccine can protect 100 per cent against disease. So vaccines against COVID-19 are the same. Vaccinations will help keep COVID-19 patients from becoming seriously ill or even dying. And they will not be able to spread the germ to others strongly.”

Vaccine efficacy

Professor of Infectious Diseases Trần Tịnh Hiền at Oxford University has said that the “rate of vaccinated people who have tested positive for coronavirus is 5 per cent to 10 per cent. This is not a failure of the vaccine.”

The protection efficiency for people getting vaccinated with the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is 60 per cent after 28 days, according to a survey conducted of 159,930 adults aged more than 70 in the UK from December 2020 to February this year.

The primary analysis of Phase III clinical trials from the UK, Brazil and South Africa published as a preprint in The Lancet confirmed that the COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca is safe and effective at preventing COVID-19, with no severe cases and no hospitalisations more than 22 days after the first dose.

Results demonstrated vaccine efficacy of 76 per cent after the first dose, with protection maintained to the second dose. With an interval of 12 weeks or more between the two doses, vaccine efficacy increased to 82 per cent.

The analysis showed the potential for the vaccine to reduce asymptomatic transmission of the virus, based on weekly swabs obtained from volunteers in the UK trial. The data showed that PCR positive readings were reduced by 67 per cent after a single dose, and 50 per cent after the two-dose regimen, supporting a substantial impact on the transmission of the virus.

The primary analysis for efficacy was based on 17,177 participants with 332 symptomatic cases from the Phase III UK, Brazil and South Africa trials led by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, a further 201 cases than previously reported.

According to a press release from AstraZeneca, the AstraZeneca US Phase III trial of AZD1222 demonstrated statistically significant vaccine efficacy of 79 per cent at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 and 100 per cent efficacy at preventing severe disease and hospitalisation.

This interim safety and efficacy analysis was based on 32,449 participants with 141 symptomatic cases of COVID-19. Vaccine efficacy was consistent across ethnicity and age. Notably, in participants aged 65 years and over, vaccine efficacy was 80 per cent.

Preventive measures

Two staff at Gia Định People’s Hospital in HCM City tested positive after contact with one of the positive cases at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases. The Gia Định hospital staff who tested positive do not have a fever, sore throat, or loss of taste and smell. They also received vaccinations in late April.

The Hospital for Tropical Diseases has been disinfected, and many measures have been taken to stamp out the spread. The hospital is currently treating 126 COVID-19 patients, including 18 seriously ill cases.

Dr Nguyễn Anh Dũng, director of Gia Định People’s Hospital and head of the hospital’s Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, said the hospital’s two staff who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and had contact with the person at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases had not visited other departments and sites on its campus.

The hospital has tested its entire staff and disinfected the entire area. The staff who tested positive work in the hospital’s microbiology department which has been isolated.

“The hospital will continue tightening preventive measures and screening,” Dũng said.

At Children’s Hospital No 1, staff have been divided into shifts. The staff must wear masks and not eat together. Many chairs in rooms have been removed.

Trần Văn Khanh, director of Lê Văn Thịnh Hospital, said: “The hospital has asked its staff to comply with the Government’s 5k message on face masks, disinfection, distancing, no gatherings, and health declarations. They are asked not to eat together.”

“The hospital’s staff are divided into many shifts because the number of patients visiting the hospital has fallen. All meetings in the hospital’s departments are carried out online,” Khanh said.

If anyone on the hospital staff has symptoms of COVID-19, they are required to report to local health officials and get tests at local health facilities. They are allowed to stay at home.

The hospital staff must fill out a health declaration form every day. Staff in the departments of microbiology, emergency, health examination, and contagious diseases are tested weekly.

The hospital has set up an examination and treatment facility for people who have a cough, fever, or loss of taste and smell, and another COVID-19 screening area outside the hospital before patients are brought to emergency departments.

Nguyễn Tấn Bỉnh, head of HCM City Department of Health, said that 821 COVID-19 community -transmitted cases have been recorded from May 18 to June 13 in the city. Districts Gò Vấp, 12, Bình Thạnh, Tân Bình, Bình Tân and Tân Phú have had the highest number of cases. The city has traced contacts and discovered small clusters, but has not found the original transmission source. VNS

Turbines of a wind power plant in Sóc Trăng Province. — Photo Sóc Trăng Newspaper

SÓC TRĂNG Contractors building eight wind power plants in Sóc Trăng Province have promised to speed up work so that they can begin generating electricity before the end of October.

Phạm Quốc Hùng, Director of Quốc Vinh Sóc Trăng Wind Power Co., Ltd., said his company’s plant in Vĩnh Châu township, with an expected output of 30MW in its first phase, would have its turbines put together on site in June and begin commercial operation in September.

The seven other plants, being built in the town along the coast, are 30-70 per cent completed and will begin operating in September or October.

Speeding up the work would mean the national grid would have access to this clean energy sooner, according to Lâm Văn Mẫn, Secretary of the provincial Party Committee.

The wind power turbines could themselves become tourist attractions, he added.

Soc Trang has around 72km of coast with constant strong winds, suitable for generating power.

It plans to have 20 wind power plants in all with a total output of 1,435MW.

Sixteen have been approved, with nine of them now under construction. — VNS