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Industry Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit was quoted by local media on April 2 as saying that the Thai government will ship 2.5 million masks every 15 days, with the goal of distributing 10 million masks in total. According to the Interior Ministry, Bangkok capital city is home to 3.05 million households, housing 5.6 million people in 50 districts. There will be 1 piece of face mask per person, Suriya said. The remaining 4.4 million masks will be distributed to neighbouring provinces, as well as southern provinces like Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani. Also on April 2, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said the government is considering starting a new national holiday to prevent the annual mass exodus usually occurring at the end of the Muslim fasting month Ramadan amid concerns over the spread of COVID-19. At a cabinet meeting, he said that measures could be put in place during the new holiday such as making tourist attractions free to help calm the people. Nearly 90 percent of … [Read more...] about Cambodian government offers financial support for tourism sector

Tran Dac Phu, senior advisor at the Public Health Emergency Operations Center under the Ministry of Health, said there is still no clue as to who the source was that first introduced Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, to Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi. … [Read more...] about Vietnam losing track of Covid-19 transmission: expert

Although masks are a common sight in many parts of Asia, Austria is only the fourth European country to enforce the use of masks in public - following in the footsteps of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. BBC … [Read more...] about Coronavirus: The unusual ways countries are managing lockdowns

Hanoi (VNA) – Party Central Committee General Secretary and State President Nguyen Phu Trong on April 2 sent a letter to people nationwide on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of  the “All-people blood donation day” (April 7), calling on them to push up the drive. In his letter, the top leader commended donors, organisations and individuals for their active participation, describing it as a manifestation of their responsibility and sentiment towards the community and the society. He said the drive has developed all over the nation, but at the same time also pointed out that there are still many places which run short of blood at various points of time, calling the situation a great loss to the blood-needing patients and a hindrance to the medical treatment. The leader took the occasion to ask the Party units, administrations, organisations and the whole society to continue facilitating the acceleration of the drive, and called on the compatriots to be ready … [Read more...] about Top leader sends letter to people nationwide on blood donation drive

Simultaneously, the State Bank of Vietnam has issued a decision which adjusts interest rates, with reductions placed on refinancing interest rate from 6% to 5% annually, in addition to dropping rediscount interest rates from 4% to 3.5% per year. This comes after the Ministry of Finance recently proposed increasing the fiscal support package for deferral tax payments to VND80,200 billion. … [Read more...] about Solutions for Vietnam to maintain its current economic growth