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This morning, the Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control of Dong Thap informed that there were 9 out of 11 cases being close contacts F1 (patient 2.424) with the negative result for the first SARS- CoV-2 testing.

Currently, all suspected cases are strictly conducting quarantine requirements in Dong Thap Province and Can Tho City.

Dong Thap province authorities have been urgently searching for two remaining F1 cases related to patient No.2424; and tracing F2 cases being isolated at home according to regulations.

Previously, a 24-year-old woman from Can Tho City working in a casino in Cambodia’s Phnom Penh and another woman illegally immigrated to Vietnam through the border gate in Tan Hong District of Dong Thap Province on February 23. They were seen at a hostel at Sa Rai Town, Tan Hong District and were promptly sent to a quarantine ward for SARS-CoV-2 testing on the same day.

Two days later, the former woman became the patient No. 2424 with SARS-CoV-2 positive result from HCMC-based Pasteur Institute and the rest one was negative for SARS-CoV-2.

By Huynh Loi- Translated by Huyen Huong

It had taken just 30 minutes for Cong, deputy head of the laboratory and diagnostic imaging department at the Binh Thanh District medical center, to finish preparing swabbing kits, protective clothing and necessary documents.

It was still dark as the 36-year-old Cong, along with four colleagues, began conducting random Covid-19 tests in areas around the Mien Dong (Eastern Region) Bus Station in Saigon for the 12th day.

From 5 a.m. to 7 a.m., they worked with local medics to take 100 samples of people from Hanoi and the provinces of Gia Lai, Kon Tum and Dak Lak in the Central Highlands.

Then the group quickly returned to their office to start other work.

Medics take random swab samples at the Mien Dong Bus Station every morning, February 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Thu Anh.

One of them took the samples to the Thu Duc Hospital for carrying out RT-PCR tests. Some received people coming from Covid-19 hotspots to check their medical declarations and take their swab samples. Others traveled to two quarantine facilities in Wards 21 and 28 to take swab samples of those under centralized quarantine.

After a long day, at around 6 p.m., they started traveling with medics in the district to take random swab samples at local restaurants. It was midnight when the medics returned to their office yet again.

The team members have been traveling from place to place and working around the clock for a month, Cong said they initially collected test samples at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport; and after an infection chain was found, they moved on to locked down neighborhoods and worked with the residents there.

In collecting samples at bus stations, they had to work from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m., said Ho Minh Hoang, head of the medical center in Binh Thanh District’s Ward 26. This means the team members had to be up at 3 a.m. to prepare, which was exhausting.

Hoang and Cong later suggested that the HCMC Center for Disease Control (CDC) and bus stations allow them to start their mission at 5 a.m.

“We have never gotten enough sleep,” said Le Thanh Dat, 30, with dark circles under his eyes. He said that due to the massive amount of work, all his teammates worked “with 200 percent of our energy,” so less than five hours of sleep per day had become normal.

To keep their families safe and reduce travel time, the medics have decided to stay at their office and sleep on the floors.

“We fall asleep right after we lie down,” Cong said. Worrying they would not hear the alarm in the early morning, they set up several loud alarms.

During the day, even grabbing a few minutes of sleep was like getting a treasure. A stool, a table, chairs in bus stations, all these became their “beds.”

Medics of Binh Thanh District sleep whenever they can. Photo courtesy of Le Thanh Dat.

After taking swab samples, the group also tracked people who’d come into close contact with Covid-19 patients in town during the Lunar New Year holiday. On February 7, three days before the week-long holiday kicked off, Binh Thanh District confirmed five new Covid-19 cases, giving the medics “unprecedentedly exhausting days.”

The obstinate

Truong Sy Phu, 45, biologist at Ward 25, told VnExpress that he is not afraid of having his schedule changed or to stay away from his family. The thing that concerned him the most was that many people did not willingly start their quarantine period after coming into contact with Covid-19 patients.

On the night of February 8, Phu received a list of locals who had come into close contact with Covid-19 patients and called them immediately, telling them to stay at home and not to meet anyone.

But one man rejected Phu’s calls. After receiving text messages from the biologist, he opened his door and talked to Phu from the second floor, saying he wanted to stay at home until the holiday is over. The conversation turned sour as Phu tried to convince the man to enter a quarantine facility.

“I am sad when people get mad at me in the middle of the night. I also have sympathy for them, I know they are worried, but I cannot step back or break the regulations,” Phu maintained.

Phu (R) talks with a man asking for a certificate confirming he does not hail from a Covid-19 hotspot. Photo by VnExpress/Thu Anh.

Around three kilometers from Ward 25, in Ward 22, a three-member family from Hai Duong’s Thanh Mien District refused to make health declarations.

They had stayed inside for days and refused to be quarantined before local police arrived at their place and warned them against breaking the decreed protocol.

Since January 28, when community transmission returned to Vietnam after almost two months, the city has detected 36 cases in eight districts. Of these, 35 are linked to the outbreak at the Tan Son Nhat airport and the other Hai Duong, the northern province that is currently the country’s Covid-19 epicenter.

HCMC suspended all non-essential services, shut down bars, karaoke parlors, cinemas, discotheques, and banned religious events on February 9 after 31 Covid cases were diagnosed.

The city has found no new cases in the last 16 days. But the medics still work around the clock, facing infection risks.

Do Van Hien, 44, head of the Ward 22 medical center, has had an unforgettable month battling the virus. His phone number has been a hotline receiving information and answering questions related to the pandemic. He also meets those who’ve come into close contact with patients, checks their travel history and takes them to quarantine facilities.

He said: “During the pandemic, we are needed the most. Medics like us, even if we are tired, have to work hard and cannot afford to fall sick.”

Located at 4 Phan Boi Chau Street, adjacent to Ben Thanh Market, the food stall was well known as the stomping ground of many foreign visitors, overseas Vietnamese and artists prior to the pandemic.

Unlike other versions of crab noodle soup, or bun rieu , the dish here consists of a big chunk of fried tofu, congealed duck blood, a slice of tomato and its huge, signature crab meatball instead of the typically lumpy crab meat with small bite-size pieces on top.

It would seem the cook aims to preserve all original flavors pertaining to this dish, allowing guests to enjoy the rich and soft tofu, chewy blood jelly and firm, tasty crab meatball and thin rice vermicelli.

The dish is served with a plate of special fish sauce, chili, shrimp paste and tamarind dipping and a plate of fresh split morning glory, mung bean sprouts, thin strips of banana blossom, cilantro and basil leaves.

A bowl of noodle soup at “Bun Rieu Ganh” in Saigon. Photo by VnExpress/Huynh Nhi.

Mai Thi Lien, 60-year-old owner of “Bun Rieu Ganh”, has always been loyal to the traditional soup taste for over 40 years with her mother’s recipe.

“The noodle soup is well seasoned. To add sourness, we do not use lime or kumquat juice but tamarind instead,” Lien said.

Even though the price per serving is VND55,000 ($2.4), considered higher than at other stalls in the city, Lien claims she is not thrifty when spending money on ingredients since when it came to good food, it was quality that counted.

Besides, inner-city rent further explains the higher price. “In the past, it used to be a street vending business, my customers had to borrow seats from nearby stalls. So seven years ago, I started to rent a fully equipped place with seats and air conditioners and needless to say, the fee is exorbitant,” she said.

Special crab meatballs in a bun rieu pot at the shop. Photo by VnExpress/Huynh Nhi.

Nguyen Nhat Huy from District 4 first visited the food stall thanks to word of mouth. He was impressed with the umami of the stock and clean, tidy space.

“VND55,000 for a bowl at a long established stall reputed for its traditional recipe is not pricey. Even an optional choice of a pork stick sausage at VND10,000 ($0.4) is quite reasonable, I think,” Huy said.

The stall is open from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. In addition to the price for a bowl of bun rieu , guests should be aware they have to pay VND3,000 if they use wet tissues and VND5,000 for motorbike parking.

The plan is to finish five bridges this year and the rest by the end of 2025, a representative of the city’s Department of Transport said Sunday.

The department will ask the local government this year to approve its plan to build 57 bridges – three bridges connecting Vinh Bao District with Quynh Phu District in Thai Binh Province, seven bridges connecting districts within the city, another 41 within these districts, and six overpasses.

The VND399 billion ($17.33 million) Quang Thanh Bridge spanning the Luoc River will connect Hai Phong’s An Lao District with Hai Duong Province’s Thanh Ha District, and is expected to open to traffic by the end of this year. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Chinh.

From 2022 to 2025, the department will propose the construction of 29 bridges, including two connecting the city with Thai Binh.

Currently, the city has 19 ongoing projects, with a total investment of more than VND7 trillion ($303.31 million).

La Van Thanh, the municipal Party secretary, said Hai Phong would focus on finalizing projects under construction in 2021.

A project to build Hai Phong’s second ring road could start at the end of 2021, Thanh said.

“Building the ring road no. 2 is crucial so the city will concentrate on two projects: a road from Dinh Vu Street to Duong Kinh and Kien An districts, and another one from Dinh Vu Street to 359 Street,” Thanh maintained.

As part of prioritizing the ring road no. 2, the city will build bridges to connect with the provinces of Hai Duong, Quang Ninh, and Thai Binh.

Hai Phong built 46 bridges from 2015 to 2020.

The plants, in their flowering stage, were found growing in their gardens in Luc Ngan District, famous for its litchis. One household had 61 plants, the highest among the eight households.

Local police discovered the cultivation on February 24 and seized all the plants. They said the households will be punished for administrative violations.

Local police pluck out opium plants from a family garden in Luc Ngan District, Bac Giang Province. Photo courtesy of police.

Of the ‘Big Four’ state-owned banks, BIDV, Agribank and VietinBank recorded growth rates that were less than the industry average of 14.6 percent a year in 2016-20 period, according to a note by Rong Viet Securities.

Vietcombank was the only one to buck the trend with growth of 16.2 percent.

“Most of the increase in the credit market share in recent years went to private lenders, while the state-owned lenders’ share dwindled,” the report said.

The latter lost a combined 1.42 percentage point of the market share, it said.

Part of the reason has been state-owned lenders’ inability to increase capital and to dilute state ownership, it said.

Meanwhile, private lenders like Techcombank, Military Bank and VPBank posted average growth of over 20 percent in the period, while Saigon Hanoi Bank achieve 18.8 percent and ACB, 17.4 percent.

Some like TPBank and VIB even achieved growth rates of over 30 percent and 25 percent though their share of credit remained small at 1.4 percent and 1.9 percent.

Rong Viet Securities analysts said since credit would continue to play an important role in helping the economy achieve GDP growth of 6-8 percent, lending growth is expected to remain in double digits.