Bringing puppy to new home

Vietnam confirmed six new COVID-19 cases on Friday, including four local infections and two imported cases, raising the national patient tally to 2,426.

The four domestic infections were detected in the now COVID-19 epicenter of northern Hai Duong Province, while the two imported cases were documented in the southern provinces of Tay Ninh and Dong Thap.

The same day, 35 patients were declared free of the virus, taking the total recoveries to 1,839.

Vietnam had gone nearly two months logging zero domestic cases before it detected the first one on January 27 and confirmed it one day later, according to the health ministry’s data.

A total of 831 community-based cases have been confirmed in 13 provinces and cities since then, making it the most serious wave to have struck Vietnam after the first-ever COVID-19 patient was announced in the country on January 23, 2020.

In this latest wave, 643 cases were recorded in Hai Duong, 61 in Quang Ninh Province, 27 in Gia Lai Province, 35 in Hanoi, five in Bac Ninh Province, two in Bac Giang Province, 36 in Ho Chi Minh City, two in Hoa Binh Province, one in Ha Giang Province, three in Dien Bien Province, six in Binh Duong Province, four in Hai Phong, and two in Hung Yen Province.

Noticeably, zero new case has been reported over the past 14 days in Hoa Binh, Dien Bien, Ha Giang, Binh Duong, Hung Yen, Bac Giang, Gia Lai, Bac Ninh, Quang Ninh, and Ho Chi Minh City.

There have been 35 virus-related fatalities since January 23, 2020, according to the Ministry of Health’s data.

The dead had suffered from comorbid medical problems, including 31 in Da Nang, three in Quang Nam Province, and one in Quang Tri Province.

Nearly 76,500 people who had contact with infected patients or made an entry from virus-plagued places are being quarantined in the country.

The government is considering COVID-19 vaccine purchase as a foremost priority.

In its resolution issued Friday, the government expects to have 150 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines this year, according to the Vietnam Government Portal .

Front liners, including healthcare workers will be among the first vaccinated against COVID-19.

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Minister of Home Affairs Le Vinh Tan: “Successor will do better than me”

2020 was the last year of your term of office. What will you, as the ‘home affairs commander’, say about the tasks of the last five years?

In the last five years, the home affairs sector continued implementing the tasks carried forward from the previous term and the resolution of the 12th Party Congress. I think there were five hallmarks.

First, institutional building. The home affairs sector advised the government to ask the National Assembly to amend four important laws, including the Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles in the Law on Cadres and Civil Servants and the Law on Public Employees; the Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles in the Law on Organization of the Government and Law on Organization of Local Governments; the Law on Belief and Religion; and the Law on Youth (amended).

The Ministry of Home Affairs has also compiled procedures for the Law on Emulation and Commendation (amended), and completed procedures to submit to the government the draft law on grassroots democracy to be submitted to the National Assembly in the time to come.

Second, reorganizing and rearranging the apparatus of administrative agencies. This has long been a matter of concern, but the latest rearrangement is more effective.

Third, administration reform, which has been carried out comprehensively in six fields – institutions; administrative procedures; apparatus organization; civil servant and public employment qualification improvement; and public finance and e-government.

Fourth, promoting decentralization.

Fifth, organizing inspection and supervision.

Do you feel satisfied about what the home affairs sector has gained in the last tenure?

I would never feel satisfied about the achievements. I regret that I could not do many things.

I believe that my successor will do better and will have more initiatives to deal with the existing problems that I still cannot do.

Could you tell us about what you could not do in the last five years?

These are issues listed in the next five-year development period plan, including tasks to be implemented in 2021.

We need to implement a new salary regime. This is my biggest concern. We carried out salary reform for many years, but we still could not build a new policy and wage mechanism which creates motivation for cadres, civil servants and public employees.

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, wage reform won’t be implemented until July 2022. I hope that social and economic conditions will be better in the next years to create favorable conditions for the new wage regime.

If we cannot implement wage reform, we won’t be able to create motivation for civil servants, and it will be difficult to implement staff streamlining.

My second wish is to build a state administrative apparatus which is really clean and strong, and only performs the function of management.

Such a streamlined apparatus can be formed only when promoting decentralization.

“If you ask if I feel satisfied about what I did in my term, I would say ‘no’. I regret that I could not do more,” Minister of Home Affairs Le Vinh Tan

We have made great efforts to do this recently. The Ministry of Home Affairs advised the Government to promulgate Resolution 99 on decentralization.

Renovating and perfecting the political system apparatus to make it streamlined and effectively operational is one of the key tasks mentioned in the 13th Party Congress. What do you think your successor needs to do to implement the task?

I think the Ministry of Home Affairs needs to continue to advise the Government, National Assembly and National Assembly’s Standing Committee to continue promulgating policies related to apparatus reorganization. This work was implemented in the last two years.

Besides, it is necessary to implement resolutions and plans set by the Government, and deploy and review master plans on administrative reform, including administrative apparatus reform.

It is necessary to do more drastically in rearranging the apparatus by allocating organizations in the society to do the things which the state doesn’t necessarily do. Central agencies need to focus on four things – development strategies, institutional regime, implementation of the strategy, and supervision. They should not undertake work that other public non-business units and other economic sectors can do.

This work needs to be associated with a strong decentralization process. I believe that it is necessary to give more autonomy to public non-business units. Only by doing this will we be able to reduce the number of employees receiving salaries from the state budget and implement the new wage policy.

Thu Hang – Tran Thuong

A laparoscopy performed by surgeon Nguyễn Văn Hải at Lào Cai Province General Hospital. — Photo Courtesy of the hospital

LÀO CAI — Nguyễn Thị Hằng, a teacher of Tân An 1 Primary School in the northern province of Lào Cai left a thank you note before leaving the Urology Surgery Department of Lào Cai Province General Hospital.

The note was sent to the head of the department doctor Nguyễn Văn Hải and other medial workers.

“Everyone was so nice to me,” Hằng said, adding that her pain seemed relieved much when a nurse told her that: “I will take your blood for testing. Please tell me if it hurts!”

Doctor Hải carefully explained her health problems, recommended possible treatment options and encouraged her a lot in a very gentle manner, Hằng said.

“We patients feel at home when staying at the hospital. The doctors and nurses treat us as if they were our family members,” Hằng wrote.

Hải said that he received a lot of thank-you notes and letters from patients like Hằng, which inspired him and made him confident in his career choice.

“A doctor not only treats people but also encourages them, reassures them and helps them stay strong during their illness,” Hải said.

Hải is known as one of the very first doctors who introduced the laparoscopy technique in the northern mountainous province of Lào Cai.

“I am very interested in laparoscopy with its significant outstanding advantages,” he said, adding that he was lucky to attend training classes on laparoscopy offered by leading doctors in Việt Nam.

With his understanding of laparoscopy, he has launched many initiatives to apply laparoscopy techniques in his hospital which is located in a disadvantaged area in Việt Nam.

People living in mountainous areas with modest infrastructure development, particularly in transportation, lacked access to medical advances, Hải said.

In many cases when laparoscopy could help solve patients’ health problems easily, due to a shortage of medical equipment, the patients still had to undergo conventional laparotomy which brings higher health risks.

In other cases, people had simple health problems but travel difficulties made them arrive at hospital too late, which resulted in serious damage, complications or even death, Hải said.

He said he was so sorry to remember a case of a 10-month old baby who died of intussusception in 2014.

“Intussusception is a serious condition in which part of the intestine slides into an adjacent part of the intestine. This telescoping action often blocks food or fluid from passing through. Intussusception also cuts off the blood supply to the part of the intestine that’s affected. This can lead to a tear in the bowel (perforation), infection and death of bowel tissue,” reads the world-famous Mayo Clinic’s description of the condition.

The baby from the mountainous district of Mường Khương was taken to the hospital in the early morning and the intussusception was not difficult to treat, Hải said, “But the baby arrived at the hospital too late. We could not save him.”

Seeing modern advanced medical equipment at hospitals in other countries where he attended training courses, Hải pitied his patients in Lào Cai, most of whom are poor, from ethnic minorities and unable to afford expensive surgeries.

Returning to Việt Nam, Hải spent more time studying laparoscopy, particularly single-port laparoscopy (SPL) – a recently developed technique in laparoscopic surgery.

Single-port laparoscopy was a surgical technique that passes through the navel without leaving a scar, Hải said, explaining that if the normal appendix laparoscopy has about 3-4 holes, with this application, doctors only need one hole to perform the surgical technique.

However, this application required specialised complex surgical means, Hải said.

To fix this disadvantage, from a conventional device, Hải manipulated it by fabricating a small needle to aid in moving the appendix root to cut the appendix or move the gallbladder to perform cholecystectomy. After that, the needle would be removed and the patient has only a pin-foot scar.

Other tools are all inserted and exit through the navel. Thus, Hải’s patients, after recovering, have almost no visible incisions.

Normally, patients have to spend an extra few tens of millions of Vietnamese đồng on specialised tools used in appendix removal surgery or gallbladder surgery.

Meanwhile, at the Department of Urology in the General Hospital of Lao Cai Province, there is no additional cost for surgical tools thanks to Hải’s initiative.

This initiative not only helps patients enjoy the latest medical advances, reduce pain and shorten hospital stays but they also incur no additional costs for surgery. In addition, local people don’t need to travel to central hospitals for such surgery anymore.

In 2016, Hải started to lead the Department of Urology and Surgery and was determined to promote the application of high-tech services.

In 2016 – the first year of the establishment of the Department of Urology and Surgery, the department’s doctors successfully implemented two new techniques that are usually performed in central hospitals: laparoscopic surgery to completely remove the kidney and laparoscopy to connect the renal pelvis and ureter.

Phạm Văn Thinh, director of Lào Cai Provine General Hospital, said Hải was an example of a hard-working, enthusiastic and responsible doctor.

With his leadership, the Urology Surgery Department has earned great fame among hospitals across the country.

The department’s staff have gained their patients’ trust and appreciation, which was the biggest gift to medical workers, Thinh said. — VNS

On February 27, 1955, President Hồ Chí Minh sent a letter to a conference of medical cadres.

In the letter, he called on medical workers to be honest and united with one another, love patients and strive for the national medical sector’s development.

With the significance of the letter, the Council of Ministers (now the Government) on February 6, 1985, issued a decision to make February 27 Vietnamese Doctors’ Day.

Flowers, gifts and greetings are usually sent to medical workers on the day. During this occasion, people usually talk about the contributions of doctors, their efforts in medical treatment and examinations as well as patients’ gratitude towards them.

The blooming season of chrysanthemums in Sa Đéc Flower Village attracts hundreds of visitors. VNA/VNS Photo by Chương Đài

ĐỒNG THÁP — The People’s Committee of the Mekong Delta province of Đồng Tháp has approved 14 new community-based tourism areas.

The province has around 100 community-based tourism areas, mostly situated in Cao Lãnh and Sa Đéc cities, and Lai Vung, Tam Nông and Tháp Mười districts.

“The province’s approval aims to turn Đồng Tháp into a popular and attractive destination for tourists and even tourism agencies,” Ngô Quang Tuyên, deputy director of the province’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Department, said.

Tuyên said community-based tourism has been booming in the Mekong Delta. It has helped to promote the value of agricultural products, create more jobs in rural areas, and bring stable sources of income for local households.

Only five households at the Tháp Mười Lotus Tourism Area in Tháp Mười District initially offered tourism services. But now the number has reached dozens of households. They offer different kinds of services like boating on lotus ponds, catching fish, and enjoying local authentic dishes.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism area served an average of 10,000 visitors per month, and even 1,000 visitors a day on national holidays and Tết (Lunar New Year).

Visitors take part in a community activity at Tràm Chim National Park in Đồng Tháp Province. — VNA/VNS Photo by Chương Đài

The Tam Nông District, where the Tràm Chim National Park is located, established a tourism association to promote local specialties, tourism products and service quality.

The association now has 30 members, offering services such as food and beverages, homestays, tour guides, and community activities.

The tourism areas in the district welcome about 100,000 local and foreign tourists every year.

Tuyên said agriculture was also a strong advantage for Đồng Tháp to develop community-based tourism. It has diverse products such as flowers, fruits and seafood.

Each agritourism spot in the province has an area of 5,000 square metres to over one hectare, attracting 500-1,000 visitors each day, mostly on weekends.

The most-visited spots are the date palm garden in Sa Đéc City, the Tân Thuận strawberry garden in Cao Lãnh City, and Ba Tuấn grape garden in Hồng Ngự District, where tourists can enjoy fresh and clean fruit and take photos.

Võ Minh Tiến, the manager of the date palm garden, said the harvest season of dates in April of the Lunar New Year attracted 300-400 visitors a day.

One of the most-visited tourism destinations in Đồng Tháp is the Sa Đéc Flower Village on an area of 313ha planted with more than 2,000 types of flowers, bonsai trees, and ornamental trees from different regions of Việt Nam.

The village now has dozens of households offering tourism services and homestays like Happy Land Hùng Thy, Bamboo House Homestay, and Ngọc Lan flower observatory tower.

Visitors take a tour to a calabash garden in Đồng Tháp Province. — VNA/VNS Photo by Nguyễn Văn Trí

Tuyên said: “Community-based tourism is helping farmers in Đồng Tháp to improve their income.”

Total revenue from community-based tourism areas between 2016 and 2020 was more than VNĐ43 billion (US$1.86 billion).

Community-based tourism also helped Đồng Tháp rank number three in the number of tourists in the Mekong Delta region, Tuyên added. — VNS

The Consular Department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed there may be two flights from Japan and Taiwan on March 5, with each carrying 343 passengers, Giao Thong newspaper reported.

On March 6, two flights from the Philippines and Malaysia are expected to carry 240 passengers home each. A day later, one flight from Singapore with 360 passengers is scheduled to arrive in Vietnam.

On March 8, there will be two flights from the U.S. and France, returning a total of over 700 passengers.

From March 9 to 14, a total six flights will bring over 2,000 Vietnamese from UAE, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Russia home.

Vietnam has suspended all inbound international commercial flights since March 2020, though the government has been operating repatriation flights to bring home Vietnamese citizens stuck abroad amid the pandemic, and has allowed special flights to carry foreign experts and investors to the country.

The government in late January limited inbound flights in light of new variants of the novel coronavirus spreading fast in many countries. Only special cases approved by the government can enter the country.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said Thursday the ministry is mapping out a plan to bring stranded Vietnamese home in line with the global pandemic situation, as well as domestic isolation capacity.

Over 75,000 Vietnamese were repatriated last year.

* 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.