Hue

At the meeting, the delegation of NA deputies of Long An Province summarised its activities during the 14th tenure (2016-2021).

Specifically, the delegation collected comments and suggestions for 83 bills and one resolution to submit to the National Assembly for approval; and promptly informed voters on the legal guidelines and policies passed by the NA.

The delegation also organised thematic seminars and sent petitions to the NA, the Government, ministries, branches, and central and local agencies, contributing positively to the implementation of the NA’s annual monitoring programme.

The delegation also organised 308 meetings, with the attendance of nearly 35,000 voters, and six conferences to collect opinions of leaders of the province and related departments and agencies.

Notably, the delegation of NA deputies of Long An Province received and handled over 1,200 complaints, denunciations and petitions from citizens according to the regulations, through which the authorities considered and resolved many urgent complaints, protecting the legitimate rights and interests of citizens, as well as contributing to ensuring political security, social order and safety in the locality.

At the meeting, Deputy PM Binh and the deputies also informed the voters on the draft agenda of the 11th session of the 14th NA as well as listened to their ideas, aspirations and requests.

All the new patients had been previously quarantined and are being treated at a COVID-19 treatment hospital in Hai Duong province.

By the evening of March 6, Vietnam had recorded a total of 2,507 COVID-19 patients, including 1,584 domestically-transmitted cases. Up to 891 domestic infections have been detected since the third wave of outbreaks hit the country on January 27.

The Treatment Subcommittee said that 1,920 patients have recovered from the disease to date, while the number of deaths related to COVID-19 was still kept at 35.

Among active patients undergoing treatment, 65 tested negative to the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 once, 57 twice and 137 thrice.

As many as 49,565 people who had close contact with COVID-19 patients or entered Vietnam from pandemic-hit regions are currently under quarantine nationwide, including 1,290 in hospitals, 14,199 in other establishments and 34,076 at home.

In a bid to live safely with the pandemic, people should strictly follow the Ministry of Health’s 5K message: khau trang (facemask), khu khuan (disinfection), khoang cach (distance), khong tu tap (no gathering) and khai bao y te (health declaration).

Minister Long chaired a teleconference which was organised on March 6 and connected with 700 places across Vietnam to launch the vaccination plan and provide related training for medical workers nationwide in the use and storage of the vaccine, as well as the treatment of post-injection complications.

He informed the teleconference that the vaccination programme will start on March 8, although the first batch of vaccine arrived in Vietnam on February 24.

“As the vaccine is new, we need to carry out thoroughly,” Long said, adding that Vietnam has to obtain an accreditation certificate from the producer and reassess the safety index of the batch of vaccine.

Because of the limited number of vaccine, the ministry cannot allocate for all 63 provinces and cities, but for 13 pandemic-hit localities, with priority given to Hai Duong province – Vietnam’s largest outbreak at present, he added.

The minister asked localities which have yet to receive the vaccine to prepare and make training programmes as the ministry will allocate vaccines to them when more are transported to Vietnam in March.

COVAC and AstraZeneca have agreed to provide 30 million doses each for Vietnam this year, the minister said, adding the ministry asked the producers to hand over the vaccines to Vietnam before September and is negotiating with Pfizer to buy an additional 30 million doses from this producer.

The ministry has assigned three deputy ministers to be responsible for directing the vaccinations as this kind of vaccine is injected for the first time and injected for adults.

Vietnam will conduct screening check-ups before infections to ensure safety, although the process takes more time. The first injections, he went on, will be given to people working on the front line of the fight against COVID-19, including health, army, police, customs and immigration personnel.

People getting the shots will be monitored via digital health records and receive e-certificates for their completion of inoculation.

* Globally, as of 9:42am CET, 6 March 2021, there have been 115.478.709 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 2.568.720 deaths, reported to WHO. As of 6 March 2021, a total of 249.160.837 vaccine doses have been administered.

* The Chinese mainland reported no new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases on Friday, the National Health Commission said Saturday. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on the mainland reached 89,962 by Friday, including 173 patients still receiving treatment, including one in severe condition.

* Japan extended a state of emergency in the Tokyo area by two weeks to try to combat COVID-19, prompting a “heartfelt apology” by Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide.

* Brazil on Friday registered more than 1,600 COVID-19 deaths for the fourth day in a row, reporting 1,800 new deaths and 75,495 new cases in the past 24 hours. Brazil has so far reported a total of 10,869,227 cases with 262,770 deaths, according to official data.

* Russia on Saturday reported 11,022 new COVID-19 cases, including 1,820 in Moscow, taking the national case tally to 4,312,181 since the pandemic began. The government’s coronavirus taskforce said that 441 people had died in the last 24 hours, bringing the Russian death toll to 88,726.

* US President Joe Biden said the latest job report shows job gains are too slow and his COVID-19 relief bill is urgently needed to boost the economy.

* The European Union will urge the United States to permit the export of millions of doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine to Europe, underlining Brussels’ scramble to bridge supply shortfalls, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.

* Italy said on Friday it would further tighten coronavirus restrictions in three of its 20 regions, while France reported the number of people in intensive care with the disease reached its highest level so far this year.

* Switzerland unveiled a CHF1 billion (US$1.08 billion) plan on Friday to offer free coronavirus tests for its entire population.

* Over 21 million people have now been given a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine in Britain, health authorities said on Friday.

* The Czech Republic has asked Germany, Switzerland and Poland to take in dozens of COVID-19 patients as the situation in its own hospitals has reached a critical point.

* One of Barcelona’s top music venues will hold a concert for 5,000 people later this month after no COVID-19 cases were reported at a pilot project using same-day testing.

* France will no longer require proof of a negative coronavirus test result from hauliers travelling directly from Ireland, citing very low positivity rates among commercial vehicle drivers.

* A variant of COVID-19 first identified in Britain now accounts for 25% of the reported cases in Poland.

* Canada’s drug regulator has approved Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, the fourth such shot to be given the green light, amid frustration over the slow start to the country’s inoculation program.

* Europe’s medicines regulator said Eli Lilly’s antibody drug combination can be used to treat COVID-19 patients who do not require oxygen support and are at high risk of progressing to severe illness.

* Hungary, which is imposing tough new lockdown measures to curb a spike in COVID-19 infections, reported a record daily high of 7,269 cases on Saturday, a jump of 14% from Friday.

* The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 9,557 to 2,492,079, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Saturday. The reported death toll rose by 300 to 71,804, the tally showed.

* Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday successfully secured a vote of confidence from the National Assembly (NA), or the lower house of the country’s parliament, NA Speaker Asad Qaiser said. A total of 178 lawmakers of the 342-seat NA that currently has 340 members, voted in Khan’s favor, said Qaiser, which “had surpassed the 172 votes that the prime minister needed” to obtain the confidence.

* Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said on Saturday, in a bid to push forward peace talks with the Taliban, that his government was ready to discuss holding fresh elections, insisting that any new government should emerge through the democratic process.

* Italy’s retail sales continued to decline in January, according to information released Friday by the country’s National Statistics Institute, though there were some bright areas in the data including a dramatic increase in online sales.

* Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Friday that her country could “use all vaccines against COVID-19 that are efficient and safe.”

* The European Union (EU) is strongly committed to supporting the upcoming talks on the Cyprus issue, said Josep Borrell, the bloc’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, on Friday during a visit to Cyprus.

* Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held a video conference on Friday over the COVID-19 pandemic and regional issues, Turkey’s Directorate of Communications said.

* African countries have so far conducted over 35 million COVID-19 tests, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said on Friday.

* The Chief of Staff of the Strategic Operational Command of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) Admiral Remigio Ceballos on Friday launched military exercises to bolster Venezuela’s defenses. The drills were intended to pay tribute to former President Hugo Chavez on the eighth anniversary of his death on March 5, 2013.

* Rwanda began its COVID-19 vaccine campaign, becoming the first nation in Africa to use pharmaceutical company Pfizer’s doses that require ultra-cold storage.

* Nigeria, Kenya and Rwanda started inoculating frontline healthcare workers and vulnerable citizens against COVID-19 on Friday.

* Mozambique expects to inoculate 16 million high-risk people against the coronavirus by 2022.