Importance of blood donation

Dien Bien (VNA) – The Red Spring Festival, a voluntary blood donation event, is taking place in the northern mountainous province of Dien Bien on March 5, with more than 300 people coming to register.

This activity aims to encourage people in good health from all social strata to donate blood, helping to address the blood shortage in medical treatment after the Lunar New Year holiday, especially after a hiatus in donation activities due to the COVID-19 resurgence.

Disease prevention measures were carried out to ensure safety for participants, organisers said.

The event is expected to collect more than 210 blood units.

According to the Dien Bien steering committee for voluntary blood donation , this movement has been developing extensively and intensively in the province over the past years, with an increasing number of donors. Donation are now not limited to youngsters or State employees but have been expanded to people from all social strata.

Apart from the Red Spring Festival, other annual events to encourage blood donation have also been maintained, it noted, adding that clubs of blood donors have actively worked to serve emergency needs at the province’s general hospital.

The National Steering Committee for Voluntary Blood Donation has set a goal to collect over 1.5 million blood units in 2021, with 99 percent of which donated by volunteers. The rate of blood donors in the population is hoped to reach 1.6 percent this year.

Director of the committee’s standing office Le Gia Tien said at a recent conference that last year, thanks to many initiatives and great efforts to overcome difficulties caused by COVID-19, the committee received approximately 1.4 million units of blood, helping millions of patients.

The majority of blood units were donated by volunteers, equivalent to nearly 1.5 percent of the population. Half of the givers donated their blood more than once./.

VNA

Six more people have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in Vietnam, raising the total number of patients in the country to 2,494, the Ministry of Health reported on Friday evening.

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnamese enterprises should take advantage of online marketing channels, re-arrange production and business orientations and strategies, and bring into full play advantages brought by free trade agreements if they want to achieve sustainable export growth , according to insiders.

Statistics of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) shows that Vietnam’s import-export value reached 95.8 billion USD in the first two months of 2021, up 24.5 percent year-on-year. Of the total, exports were valued at 48.55 billion USD, up 23.2 percent, and imports 47.26 billion USD, up 25.9 percent.

During January-February, Vietnam enjoyed a trade surplus of 1.29 billion USD, down from the 1.8 billion USD seen in the same period last year. The domestic sector posted a trade deficit of 4.14 billion USD, while the FDI sector, including crude oil, saw a trade surplus of 5.43 billion USD.

At the Government’s February regular meeting, MoIT Minister Tran Tuan Anh set a target of 4-5 percent in export growth in 2021.

To that end, MoIT Deputy Minister Cao Quoc Hung said that the ministry is considering a new strategy on import-export activities in the coming time to be submitted to the Prime Minister for issuance.

In addition, the ministry will continue engaging in negotiations and perfecting relevant institutions on free trade agreements (FTAs), including issues related to the rule of origins so as to help business better optimize advantages of the agreements.

It will also consolidate and expand export markets, bring into full play opportunities brought about by existing FTAs, diversify import and export markets, diversify exported products, increase the competitiveness of exported products, and develop brands so as to achieve sustainable export development, Hung added./.

VNA

The Vietnam Women’s Union organized a ceremony to give the Kovalevskaia award 2020 with the participation of Associate professor Nguyen Thi Doan, former Vice President, chairwoman of the Kovalevskaia Award Committee.

For individual category, Associate Professor Truong Thanh Huong, lecturer of Cardiovascular Faculty of the Hanoi-based Medical University won the award. Lecturer, associate professor Truong Thanh Huong has made great achievement in researches with the outstanding one being her research “Building an inherited gene mutation causing high levels of blood cholesterol”.

Moreover, she has proposed management models of illness in Vietnam. Her research of an inherited gene mutation causing high levels of blood cholesterol was certified by the Ministry of Science and Technology and transferred to medical facilities for application in taking care of nearly 500,000 Vietnamese people suffering hereditary blood cholesterol.

For team category, female scientists of the Institute of Natural Product Chemistry under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology won the award. They have made research on biologically-active compounds with natural origins for application into real life to better human health.

A group of researchers led by associate professors Ngo Kim Chi and Le Thi Phuong Quynh have made the project “Level and measures to limit greenhouse gas emissions in production of coffee in the Central Highlands Province of Dak Lak”, which also won the award.

The Kovalevskaya Award was named after the Russian mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaya. The award, the first national award for female scientists, started to be presented in Vietnam in 1986.

The prestigious annual award is given to organizations and individuals who are female scientists and have excellent achievements in research and applying science into life, bringing benefits in different fields including economy, society and culture.

Since 1986, the award has been presented to 19 organizations and 48 individuals in various fields such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, agriculture, medicine and information technology.