000 sex tours arrested in hanoi vnexpress international

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said on Thursday that the Ministry of Health and Government Office should draw up specific guidelines for the purpose.

No details of how or from whom they will mobilize funds are known yet.

Vietnam plans to procure 150 million doses from British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca, global vaccine access mechanism Covax and domestic producers by 2022, the ministry has said.

The first batch of 117,600 doses from AstraZeneca was delivered on Wednesday.

Hanoi has decided it will provide free vaccination, and estimates it will need 15 million doses to vaccinate everyone above 18.

The northern port city Hai Phong plans to acquire more than two million doses.

Thirty-five volunteers in Hanoi and 38 in southern Long An Province were divided into four groups for the second phase of human trials of Nanocovax, a Vietnamese Covid-19 vaccine produced by Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC.

Groups would be injected with placebos, as well as 25 microgram, 50 microgram and 75 microgram doses each. Volunteers would not know which type of shot they received.

Following their shots, all volunteers would be monitored for 60 minutes. Afterwards, they would be medically monitored by local authorities at home.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam visited the site Friday morning, saying Vietnam is doing its best to hasten progress for a Covid-19 vaccine while still ensuring the process adheres to the highest standards.

Nhu, 36 and a teacher, was one of the first Covid-19 vaccine trial volunteers during the first phase commenced last year. She said her health so far has been very good, and she has formed a Facebook group to counsel those who wish to participate in the trial’s second phase.

Nhu participated in the second phase Friday too.

“I’m the evidence to prove the success of the trial vaccine, and I’m very proud,” she said.

Dan, 63, said she had known of the vaccine trials weeks ago. After much consideration, she signed up to participate in the second phase.

“At my age, there could be risks and complications if I’m infected. As such, I want to take active care of my health and joined this phase of vaccine trials,” she said, adding she would recommend her neighbors as well.

Another 52-year-old man in Long An said he had “absolute trust” in the Vietnamese Covid-19 vaccine. He had arrived at the injection site at 7 a.m. for his shot.

“I’m not worried at all; instead I feel happy and proud to contribute to our medical field,” he said.

A total 560 people in Hanoi and Long An would be involved in the second phase of the Nanocovax human trials, in collaboration with Vietnam Military Medical University and HCMC Pasteur Institute. Nearly 200 people in Hanoi had been screened as vaccine trial volunteers Wednesday and Thursday, with 100 more screened Friday.

The first phase, which commenced last December with 60 volunteers, revealed Nanocovax to be safe, immunogenic and causing no severe side effects, said Do Quyet, director of Vietnam Military Medical University. Preliminary results also showed antibodies produced by Nanocovax had an effect on a coronavirus variant originating from the U.K., which is up to 70 percent more transmissible than ordinary strains, he added.

The second phase would allow researchers to see how exactly immunogenic Nanocovax is. Volunteers for the second phase could now include those aged 65 and above, along with those with underlying, non-severe conditions like hypertension and diabetes, according to the National Research Ethics Committee.

Preliminary results for the second phase should be expected within May, said Quyet. Afterwards, the Ethics Committee and the Ministry of Health would determine the most optimal doses for the third phase.

“If everything goes well, preparations for the third phase could begin by May. In this phase, the number of volunteers could reach between 10,000-15,000,” said Quyet.

As of Wednesday, Vietnam has recorded 2,421 Covid-19 cases, with 578 still active.

The 25 to 145-centimeter-high trees were discovered covering 800 of 4,630 square meters cultivated by Tran Hung, 38, in Chu Se District on Thursday afternoon.

Police also found a nursery where baby cannabis trees were being reared.

Hung said the nursery is owned by his grandmother and that he was assigned to manage it two years ago.

In late 2019, an acquaintance gave him cannabis seeds to grow as cattle feed, he said.

Police, having seized the entire cannabis crop, plan to expand their investigation.

Cannabis is on the list of narcotics forbidden in Vietnam.

Those growing cannabis on a small scale could be fined VND2-5 million ($86.16-215.40). Farmers found cultivating 500 to 3,000 plants could face jail terms of six months to three years, while those operating on a bigger scale could spend up to seven years in jail.

Oxalis, the only private company licensed to explore and conduct adventure tours in the central province, welcomed 6,000 Vietnamese nationals last year, increasing thrice against the previous years.

The total number of cavers, however, was down 50 percent from the previous year to 7,000 as inbound tourism plunged due to travel restrictions.

Of the 7,000 visitors, 1,000 were foreign cavers who had entered Vietnam prior to the government halting international flights in late March last year to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Nguyen Chau A, CEO of Oxalis, said the company, with about 500 employees, focuses exclusively on adventure tours to explore caves in Quang Binh, including Son Doong, the world’s largest cave, and Tu Lan.

With international flights and foreigner entry remaining suspended except for special cases , local businesses are focusing on boosting domestic tourism.

Currently, around 185 slots remain available to tour Son Doong in 2021, and 287 Tu Lan tours are up for grabs, according to Oxalis.

Son Doong opened to tourists in 2013. It comprises at least 150 individual caves, a dense subterranean jungle and several underground rivers. British magazine Conde Nast Traveler named Son Doong one of seven must-explore wonders of 2020.

Tu Lan, a popular setting for film shoots, was discovered in 2010, with two entrances stretching 2.2 kilometers. Tourists usually explore Tu Lan along with other caves in the system, including Chuot, Hung Ton, Ken, and Kim.

To ensure safety, the company does not receive visitors from pandemic-hit areas as recommended by the Ministry of Health. Cavers joining the tour are required to submit medical declarations.

* China and India should firmly follow the right path of mutual trust and cooperation between neighboring major countries, and not go astray with suspicion and distrust nor fall back on a road of negative retrogression, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Thursday. Wang made the remarks in a telephone conversation with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, stressing that the two sides should maintain the strategic consensuses reached by their leaders.

* As COVID-19 transmission rates seemingly decline across the European Region, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge expressed health concerns over “long-COVID” or “post-COVID” symptoms at a virtual press conference on Thursday.

* Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in Armenia in a telephone conversation with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday, the Kremlin said.

* The Pentagon confirmed on Thursday that the US military had conducted airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria. The Pentagon called the operation a “proportionate military response” carried out after consultations with coalition partners.

* China approved two more vaccines for public use, raising the number of domestically produced vaccines that can be used in China to four.

* Japan on Friday is preparing to lift the state of emergency over COVID-19 for five prefectures where the situation has improved, although the Greater Tokyo metropolitan area will likely be kept under the emergency period for the time being, according to government sources.

* The Department of Health (DOH) of the Philippines reported on Friday 2,651 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily increase since Oct. 17 last year, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 571,327.

* Leaders of the European Union (EU) called for an accelerated production and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines late on Thursday as the bloc is struggling with supply shortfalls.

* Brazil surpassed 250,000 COVID-19 deaths, while France and Germany said COVID-19 is here to stay after European Union leaders discussed ways to fight new variants of the virus, step up inoculations and save Europe’s tourism industry from another ruinous summer.

* Europe’s medicines regulator issued new guidance for drug makers that modify their vaccines to protect against variants of the virus to speed up the approval process.

* France will bring in new restrictions for the Moselle area around its common border with Germany, and impose measures including weekend lockdowns in Paris and 19 other regions from the start of March if signs of the coronavirus accelerating persist.

* Australia’s Victoria state will start easing restrictions from Friday night.

* Republic of Korea launched its inoculation campaign, with shots to be administered in some 200 nursing homes.

* US President Joe Biden’s administration plans to launch a campaign to educate Americans about vaccines in anticipation of a period later this year where supply may outstrip demand because of vaccine hesitancy.

* Brazil will purchase 20 million doses of the vaccine made by India’s Bharat Biotech for delivery between March and May.

* Canada’s vaccination campaign is ramping up after earlier supply disruptions and the number of inoculations last week hit a five-week high.

* Pfizer and BioNTech said they are testing a third dose of their vaccine to better understand the immune response against new variants of the virus.

* Mexico’s economy grew quicker than first estimated during the fourth quarter as the country recovered from its sharpest economic contraction in nearly nine decades.

* Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions have fallen to the lowest level since 1995 as coronavirus restrictions limited travel. Data released by the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources on Friday revealed that emissions fell by 4.4 percent in the 12 months to September 2020.

* Security personnel of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) rescued more than 80 Rohingya refugees who had been onboard a boat drifting in the waters of Andaman Sea for 10 days, and retrieved eight dead bodies.

* Republic of Korea’s quarantine authorities said Friday that it will extend the country’s five-tier social-distancing rules at the third-highest level in the Seoul metropolitan area for two weeks.

* US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that he would work to make US-Saudi relations “as strong and transparent as possible.” Biden made the remarks in the first phone conversation with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud since Biden’s inauguration.

* Germany’s Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure said on Wednesday that more than EUR5 billion (US$6.1 billion) would be invested in the modernization of over 3,000 railway stations across the country.

* Colombian President Ivan Duque announced a decision Thursday night to extend a declared national health emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic by three more months, as the vaccination drive entered its eighth day.

* AstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot said he hoped to meet the EU’s expectations on the number of vaccines the company can deliver to the bloc in the second quarter.

* The Czech prime minister said people’s movement needed to be “radically” limited over at least the next three weeks.

* Portugal extended until at least mid-March a nationwide lockdown.

* The African Union is backing calls for drugmakers to waive some intellectual property rights on COVID-19 medicines and vaccines.

* Israel has frozen its programme to send vaccines abroad to buy international goodwill, Defence Minister Benny Gantz said, after the initiative came under legal scrutiny.

* Bahrain has approved Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose vaccine for emergency use.

Many effective models

According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Bac Lieu Province, through the process of agricultural restructuring, many models of the linking value chains in the production, processing and consumption of agricultural products have been formed, bringing high economic efficiency. Currently, the province’s many companies and units of shrimp farming in the form of a closed value chain were recognised as agricultural enterprises applying high technology or certified by international standards of aquaculture such as GlobalGAP, BAP, ASC, and Organic. In addition, the province has steadily developed the rice industry following a large production model, joining the value chain, with rice output increased from 1.066 million tonnes in 2015 to 1.15 million tonnes by 2020.

In Hai Duong, the agricultural sector has also been promoting the formation of value chains for agricultural products. Accordingly, the province has been focusing on building agricultural production zones for export processing, high-tech agricultural zones, and expanding production scale according to the GAP assessment process. Up to now, the whole province has 335 hectares of organic rice, 114 rice-growing models of “one zone, one variety, one time”, with the minimum scale of 30 hectares per zone. Specialised vegetable growing areas with high efficiency continue to be maintained and expanded. Thanks to production in value chains in 2020, many agricultural products of the province will be exported through official channels to high quality markets, such as: lychee, longan exported to Japan and the US; carrots to the Republic of Korea (ROK), Japan, and Middle Eastern countries; cabbage to the ROK and Japan; pickled cucumbers to Russia and the ROK; and onion and garlic to Malaysia.

Meanwhile, according to the Hung Yen Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the province has successfully implemented the project “Building and developing models of production and consumption chain of agricultural products” in the direction of producing quality goods, ensuring food safety. The project spent more than VND26 billion to support science – technology, infrastructure, and promoting product consumption, including applying advanced technology in production chains, food business, disseminating knowledge and guidance on cultivation and husbandry techniques. Through project implementation, in Hung Yen, many typical models appeared, such as: Hoang Minh Chau Co., Ltd. with a group of turmeric products including: Nano Curcumin, Nano Collagen turmeric milk, turmeric cream, turmeric starch; and the Mien Thiet longan cooperative with Hung Yen longan.

Towards sustainable development

Building value chains for agricultural products is one of the important solutions towards the sustainable development goals of the entire agricultural sector. Over the past time, several models of value chains have been formed and have been remarkably effective, but they are not high in quantity nor evenly distributed in fields and trades. This is attributed to the fact that agricultural production in many regions of the country is still small and fragmented, it is difficult to form concentrated production zones to apply science – technology as well as control issues related to food safety and hygiene. Therefore, in the coming time, it is necessary to promote the formation of value chain models in the forms such as cooperatives, cooperative groups associated with enterprises; Manufacturing enterprises associated with distribution firms; Enterprise performing all stages in the chain.

Therefore, localities should soon plan concentrated agricultural production zones, as a basis for the formation of value chains. In Bac Lieu Province, according to the plan, by 2025, the province will promote investment in building an aquaculture zone, a high-tech aquatic seed production area with 4,000 hectares of farming; implementing large fields associated with rice consumption to reach 100,000 hectares, accounting for more than 51% of the cultivated area. In addition, the local agricultural sector also continues to guide and support production and business establishments in the direction of scaling up, ensuring all the conditions to convert activities into new-style cooperatives or business. At the same time, the province will also support businesses, cooperatives, and business households to participate in the programme “One Commune, One Product” (OCOP) to link production and consumption in the value chain to increase high added value.

In order to develop the value chain of local specialty products, in 2018, the Prime Minister issued Decision No.490/QĐ-TTg approving the National Programme of One Commune, One Product for the 2018-2020 period (OCOP Programme). The goal of this program is to standardise at least 50 percent of the existing products, or about 2,400 products, while consolidating and perfecting production organisation in the direction of linking production households with cooperatives and enterprises.