PeterRS Posted May 30, 2021 Posted May 30, 2021 From the BBC website Sunday 30 May Vietnam has detected a Covid variant that appears to be a combination of the Indian and UK variants and can spread quickly in the air, officials say. Vietnam's Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long described the latest mutation on Saturday as "very dangerous". ... Mr. Nguyen said the new hybrid variant was more transmissible than previously known versions, especially in the air. He said it was discovered after running tests on newly infected patients, online newspaper VnExpress reported. He added that the genetic code of the virus would be made available soon. TMax and Lonnie 1 1 Quote
PeterRS Posted May 31, 2021 Author Posted May 31, 2021 Vietnam will now test all 13 million inhabitants of ho Chi Minh City in response to the discovery of the new variant of the covid 19 virus. Shops and restaurants will be closed for 15 days and new social distancing rules will be put in place. Vietnam's latest spike accounts for over half the total number of cases in the country. Even so, it still remains far better than most with just over 7,000 infections and 47 deaths. According to the BBC, this new variant first appeared in a cluster of 125 cases attending a Christian Mission in the city. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57303306 TMax 1 Quote
reader Posted May 31, 2021 Posted May 31, 2021 From Vietnam News Nội Bài International Airport to stop receiving passengers from abroad from June 1 HÀ NỘI — Nội Bài International Airport in Hà Nội will stop receiving foreign arrivals from Tuesday until June 7 amid the complicated development of COVID-19. According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, outbound flights from Nội Bài Airport are allowed to take off as normal. The move followed orders of the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control and the Ministry of Transport to curb the virus transmission. The CAAV has also extended the suspension of receiving foreign arrivals at HCM City’s Tân Sơn Nhất Airport until June 14. Earlier the airport was ordered to stop receiving passengers entering the country from May 27 to June 4. Việt Nam has suspended international commercial flights to the country since early 2020 to prevention the coronavirus spreading. Foreign experts, workers and Vietnamese citizens on repatriation flights were earlier allowed to enter Việt Nam at Nội Bài, Tân Sơn Nhất, Đà Nẵng, Vân Đồn airports and must be in 21-day quarantine at centralised sites. Hà Nội has recorded more than 200 cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak resurged in late April. The city has taken strict preventive measures like ordering the closure of restaurants, public parks and suspended non-essential services like karaoke venues, bars and massage parlours. Meanwhile, 14-day social distancing under Directive 15 has been applied in the majority of HCM City’s districts from Monday. — VNS ============================================= From Vietnam Express Vietnam Airlines signs up for international vaccine passport program Vietnam Airlines has signed an agreement with the International Air Transport Association to trial a vaccine passport next month. It will implement the IATA Travel Pass initiative that allows people to store verified Covid-19-test and vaccination certificates on a smartphone app. They must be issued by authorized facilities registered with IATA. Le Hong Ha, CEO of Vietnam Airlines, said: "The most important goal of the initiative is to revive people’s faith in air transport and ensure safe and smooth travel." Nick Careen, an IATA board member, said it is a solution for facilitating international travel during the pandemic. Three countries have signed up for the use of the IATA Travel Pass, Singapore, Panama and Estonia, and 30 airlines. Quote
reader Posted June 3, 2021 Posted June 3, 2021 From Nikkei Asia Vietnam's 'new COVID variant' part of existing Indian strain: WHO HANOI -- As Vietnam's northern manufacturing hub fights COVID-19 variants, the World Health Organization's main representative in the country is urging authorities and companies critical to supply chains to continue containment efforts because vaccinations of factory workers are falling behind needs. Since late April, Vietnam has been struggling to contain multiple COVID-19 outbreaks at factories located in Bac Ninh and Bac Giang, two neighboring provinces near Hanoi, the capital. On Wednesday, authorities reported 241 new cases in the country, with 157 in Bac Giang and 31 in Bac Ninh. Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long shocked global investors on Saturday, hinting that a newly discovered variant could have contributed to outbreaks in the heart of the country's economic engine. Long said the government uncovered "a new COVID-19 variant" that combines characteristics of two existing variants first found in India and the U.K. "There is no new hybrid variant in Vietnam at this moment based on WHO definition," Kidong Park, the WHO representative in Vietnam, told Nikkei Asia on Wednesday in an online interview. "The variant detected is Delta variant, with additional mutations, and needs more observation. We need to monitor during next couple of weeks," he said referring to the newly labeled "delta" variant which was first detected in India and appeared in other countries. "This is within the existing [delta] variant. It is an additional mutation" Park explained, adding "as for now, there is no alarming alert from WHO. Park also stressed the delta variant is dangerous as it is highly contagious and spreads very quickly. Son Nghiem, a senior research fellow at Griffith University's Centre for Applied Health Economics in Australia, agreed there is no need for new WHO alert at this time. "To my knowledge, the Bac Giang and Bac Ninh outbreaks were mostly associated with the Indian variant," Nghiem told Nikkei Asia last week. Park said it is difficult to tell when Bac Giang and Bac Ninh, home to factories for international manufacturers including Samsung Electronics, will be able to end the outbreaks. Since late April, more than 400 companies -- with 65,000 workers -- have halted production in Bac Ninh. In Bac Giang, four out of six industrial parks were forced to shut down on May 18, affecting at least 140,000 workers. Local authorities also ordered COVID-hit factory operators to keep workers inside facilities to contain the virus. Employees were asked to eat, sleep and work in factories, with tents set up as temporary accommodations. Since vaccinations for factory workers just started this week in the two provinces, authorities and operators will have to continue stringent containment measures including testing, contact tracing and isolation "for a certain period of time," Park said. Vietnam had been one of the most successful countries in preventing the spread of COVID-19 since the pandemic began. The challenge now is to accelerate vaccinations amid a shortage of doses as Asian economies rush to secure supply. https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/Interview/Vietnam-s-new-COVID-variant-part-of-existing-Indian-strain-WHO ========================================== From Bloomberg News / Bangkok Post Vietnam to have 125m doses this year Vietnam’s health ministry said the country will have nearly 125 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines this year after initially reporting it expects 120 million vaccine doses, according to an updated post on the government’s website. The total includes 5 million doses from Moderna Inc, 20 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine and 31 million doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, it said. Vietnam, with a popultaion of 96.5 million, will also acquire 30 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses and 38.9 million doses through the Covax initiative, the World Health Organization-backed effort to buy and distribute vaccines to low- and middle-income nations. Vietnam is nearing its goal of purchasing 150 million vaccine doses this year for 75% of the population, according to the post, which cited Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long. Vietnam continues to negotiate with vaccine manufacturers to boost vaccine supplies to reach its herd immunity target by the end of this year or early 2022, Long said. https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2126251/vietnam-to-have-125m-doses-this-year Lonnie 1 Quote
Members Lonnie Posted June 3, 2021 Members Posted June 3, 2021 38 minutes ago, reader said: There is no new hybrid variant in Vietnam at this moment based on WHO definition," Kidong Park, the WHO representative in Vietnam, told Nikkei Asia on Wednesday in an online interview. "The variant detected is Delta variant, with additional mutations, and needs more observation. We need to monitor during next couple of weeks," he said referring to the newly labeled "delta" variant which was first detected in India and appeared in other countries. "This is within the existing [delta] variant. It is an additional mutation" Park explained, adding "as for now, there is no alarming alert from WHO. Park also stressed the delta variant is dangerous as it is highly contagious and spreads very quickly. Oh boy...here we go again. Quote
