A teacher from the north-central Vietnamese province of Quang Binh has been found deliberately receiving two doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine within only 10 minutes. The incident occurred at a vaccination site at a general hospital in Le Thuy District on Saturday, Ngo Duc Van – director of the infirmary – confirmed on Sunday morning. N.T.L., a teacher at Truong Thuy Elementary and Middle School, received the two vaccine shots on purpose, Van added. After getting her first dose, L. folded her vaccination paper to cover the confirmation stamp and headed back to the waiting line. At the vaccination desk, the health worker looked at the folded piece of paper and was not aware that L. had already jabbed. The health worker then injected L. with another dose and only realized it when she was about to add the confirmation stamp to L.’s vaccination paper. The interval between the two shots was only 10 minutes, while the recommended pause for the AstraZeneca COVID-19 …
4,000 foreigners get COVID-19 vaccination in Hanoi
Hanoi has provided inoculation against the novel coronavirus for around 4,000 foreigners over the past four days, as part of the Vietnamese capital city’s ongoing plan to vaccinate all foreign residents, according to local health authorities. Eight of the expected 30 vaccination lines were ready on Wednesday, when the municipal Department of Health kicked off the vaccination plan at My Dinh National Stadium in Nam Tu Liem District. The district’s health center was assigned to coordinate with the 115 Emergency Center and Hanoi International Friendship Hospital JSC to ensure safety for all foreigners. Some 4,000 foreigners had been inoculated as of Saturday, according to statistics. Lists of foreigners for vaccination have been made through embassies, foreigner management agencies, and local police. Before getting vaccinated, foreigners have to go through medical screening, including body temperature and blood pressure measurement, medical history reference, and consultancy. …
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Vietnamese consumers’ demand for shopping groceries online soars amid Covid-19
Illustrative image The study showed that online grocery was the only category that has maintained steady and consistent growth since the beginning of the pandemic. This also partly explains the strong increase in demand for online stores selling essential products during the months of social distancing. Google searches related to online grocery stores increased by 223 percent in Q2, 2021. The number of searches increased 11 times in July compared to May and 3.6 times compared to June when the social distancing order under the Directive 16 was implemented in some provinces and cities. People pay more attention to fresh food, beverages, pre-packaged items, fruits and veggies as the searches of these items surge by 99 percent, 51 percent, 30 percent, and 11 percent, respectively, compared to the previous quarter. Thus, social distancing could be one of the factors driving the surge in demand for online supermarkets. With the growing necessity of purchasing essentials online, …
Vietnamese consumers’ demand for shopping groceries online soars amid COVID-19
Illustrative photo (Source: vietnamnet.vn) Hanoi (VNA) - The ranking of e-commerce businesses in Vietnam's Map of E-commerce changed in the second quarter of 2021, with the volume of searches on Google for essential online stores skyrocketing, according to an iPrice Group study. The study showed that online grocery was the only category that has maintained steady and consistent growth since the beginning of the pandemic. This also partly explains the strong increase in demand for online stores selling essential products during the months of social distancing. Google searches related to online grocery stores increased by 223 percent in Q2, 2021. The number of searches increased 11 times in July compared to May and 3.6 times compared to June when the social distancing order under the Directive 16 was implemented in some provinces and cities. People pay more attention to fresh food, beverages, pre-packaged items, fruits and veggies as the searches of these items surge by …
Hope Foundation invites contributions to help students access online education
As of mid-September, around 1.5 million students were having trouble accessing online lessors, according to the Ministry of Education and Training. As the pandemic rages, students nationwide have gone through numerous periods of remote learning over the past two years. Not all of them have been lucky to enjoy easy access to online classes. There have been families where siblings have had to choose who gets to study at home, while others have to run to a neighbor's house to borrow a mobile phone. "There's not even enough money for daily meals, forget buying phones and computers for online learning," said Phan Thi Mai, the mother of a first grade child in Dong Nai Province. Dang Hai, a father in Ho Chi Minh City, shares the conundrum. "I have three children in first, fourth and seventh grade, but there’s only one phone. I've already requested the schools to let them attend classes at different hours but failed. I don't know what to do," he said. The lack of phones and computers …
Vietnam records 10,025 more local Covid cases
The three localities with the highest number of new cases were Ho Chi Minh City with 5,496 cases, Binh Duong with 2,332 cases and Dong Nai with 953 cases. 233 deaths were added to the national database on Sunday, with 182 cases in Ho Chi Minh City, 31 in Binh Duong, nine in Long An, three in An Giang, two each in Binh Thuan and Tien Giang, and one each in Khanh Hoa, Kien Giang, Quang Binh and Tay Ninh. The total number of coronavirus deaths so far is 17,090 cases, or around 2.5 percent of all infected cases. Also on Sunday, 9,137 Covid-19 patients were announced recovered, bringing the total number of recovered cases so far to 457,505. Vietnam has vaccinated over 34 million people with at least one Covid-19 shot. Around 6.5 million people have been fully vaccinated. …
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Duckling darlings help families dispel pandemic blues
Bich Thuy, 64, has a new morning routine. She sits on a swing, knitting and watching her four ducklings basking in the sun at her house in Hanoi. She has named the golden ducklings 'Khong Di' (Don't Go), 'Khau Trang' (Face Masks), 'Khoang Cach' (Social Distancing) and 'Khai Bao' (Declare). Thuy and her ducklings are part of a surprising, but definite trend in Vietnam: buying eggs, incubating them and raising ducklings as pets. Trong Tan has found happiness raising two ducklings at his house during the pandemic enforced social distancing periods. Photo courtesy of Tan While the origin of this trend has not been pinpointed, many believe it originated during the Covid-19 lockdown last year, when some families bought eggs to hoard, but forgot to eat them and they hatched. The cute ducklings soon became pets relatively easy to take care of, and the trend was fuelled by word of mouth and social media, the story goes. While there are no statistics on the number of …
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Sa Pa woman gives unconventional tour amid the epidemic
With ingenuity, Sa Pa native Vu Thi Ngoc Huong still welcomes hundreds of visitors to this land amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Arising at first light, the agile lady helps her family prepare ingredients to make Rom cake - a traditional cake of the Giay people on the biggest holiday of the year. She then installs the old iPhone into the gimbal, and checks the transmission to smoothly welcome tourists to join the online tour “Giay cuisine - the biggest day of the year”. Huong usually has 1-2 weekly online tours, the largest of which can be up to 50 guests at once. She attracts visitors with her dazzling smile, graceful speaking and her fluency in English. Visitors from afar all attentively watch each stage of making sticky rice cakes, contemplating the atmospheric village of the Giay ethnic minority during the traditional holiday. Bringing hundreds of tourists Huong has always cherished the desire to preserve and spread the culture of the Giay ethnic group. In August 2020, she …
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Ambassador suggests Novartish push up cooperation in drugs research, production
She made a suggestion during a working visit to the headquarters of Novartis Pharmaceutical Group in Basel city on September 15. The ambassador valued Novartis's activities in Vietnam and said she hoped that the group would pay attention to support the country in accessing vaccines and especially medicines to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Lutz Hegemann is Group Head of Corporate Affairs & Global Health, said although Novartis does not directly develop vaccine technology, it boasts advanced pharmaceutical production infrastructure. It is cooperating with Pfizer and BioNTech to produce mRNA vaccine at Novartis' factories, contributing to speeding up the production and supply of this vaccine globally, he said. In addition, it is accelerating research and production of drugs to treat COVID-19. Novartis has so far successfully produced many generic drugs to treat COVID-19, including those that are applying for a license for use in Vietnam. To expand operations in Vietnam, in …
No glow on Hanoi’s lantern street as Mid-Autumn Festival approaches
Since Hoan Kiem District is one among nine Hanoi districts deemed at high risk for Covid-19 infections, social distancing measures are still in place. On Hang Ma Street, a Covid-19 checkpoint was erected Saturday to prevent large gatherings of people shopping for the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is also known as Children’s Tet in Vietnam. Along the streets, nearly all shops are closed. The capital has recorded 4,157 Covid-19 cases in the fourth wave starting April 27, with 20 added Friday. Police officers visit the street and remind shopkeepers that the social distancing order is still in force. Some masks, lanterns and drums used to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival are seized by authorities. When police officers leave, some shops still engage in quick sales before shutting their doors. Shutters are opened just …
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