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The meeting was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, who is also head of the committee.

The board asked that favourable conditions continue to be created for the clinical test of COVID-19 vaccines, while plans of production should be put in place in order to quickly produce vaccines once the testing proves successful.

Hailing the Health Ministry for its vaccination efforts and dealing with post-vaccination reactions, the board directed the health, public security, and national defence ministries to continue closely controlling immigration pending a policy regarding “vaccine passports”.

Many at the meeting reiterated that prevention measures continue to play an important role in the current context.

Ministries, agencies, and localities are urged to direct medical stations, schools, lodging facilities, factories, and markets to remain vigilant and seriously follow prevention and control measures.

Vietnam reported 16 imported cases of COVID-19 on the evening of the same day, raising the national count to 2,733.

The new cases include one Indian expert, one American expert and 14 Vietnamese citizens who were sent to quarantine right upon their arrival.

Meanwhile, 2,445 COVID-19 patients have been given the all-clear, and the death toll remains at 35.

Among patients still under treatment, 16 have tested negative for the novel coronavirus once, 18 twice and 18 thrice.

A total 38,743 people who had close contact with COVID-19 patients or arrived from pandemic-hit areas are being quarantined across the country.

The Health Ministry continues to urge all people to follow the 5K motto – Khau trang (wearing facemask) – Khu khuan (disinfecting) – Khoang cach (keeping distance) – Khong tu tap (no gathering) – Khai bao y te (making medical declaration), in order to live safely amid the pandemic.

The Vietnamese economy is forecast to grow seven percent per annum in 2021-22, largely driven by increased export and investment, Fitch Ratings said in a post on its website on Tuesday.

“Strong export growth and a successful campaign to contain the spread of COVID-19 have supported Vietnam’s economy through the pandemic,” the American credit rating agency remarked.

Other parts of Vietnam’s economy have proved robust despite tourism, one of the country’s main sectors, hit the hardest by the coronavirus crisis.

The government posted 2.9 percent in GDP growth last year, placing Vietnam among a handful of nations globally that reported positive economic growth amid the pandemic stress.

“Growth was buoyed by external demand, with goods exports rising by 6.9 percent,” Fitch Ratings stated.

“Domestic activity was also supported by the limited spread of COVID-19 in the country.

“Just 1,465 cases and 35 deaths from the virus were officially recorded in 2020.

“We expect growth to remain strong, at around seven percent annually, in 2021-2022, buoyed by continued export expansion and higher investment.”

The Southeast Asian country’s COVID-19 tally has reached 2,733, with 2,445 patients having recovered from the respiratory disease, as of Wednesday evening, according to the Ministry of Health’s data.

Growth prospects will be reinforced by a pandemic fiscal package for 2020-21 of about VND292 trillion (US$12.7 billion), or roughly 3.6 percent of the 2020 GDP, Fitch Ratings forecast.

Goods exports rose 23.8 percent year on year in the first quarter of this year, supporting real economic growth in the quarter of 4.5 percent year on year.

Vietnam is benefiting from such new trade agreements as the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, as well as the country’s cost competitiveness.

“Rapid increases in public infrastructure investment and FDI should bolster the sustainability of strong medium-term growth,” Fitch Ratings said.

Vietnam’s generally robust economic outlook remains subject to risks, as its vaccination program has moved slowly, beginning only on March 8, the company observed.

The nation has so far received 928,800 coronavirus vaccine doses from direct purchases or the COVAX scheme, co-led by the World Health Organization, according to the health ministry’s figures.

Over 60,000 people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Wednesday evening.

“Vaccine hesitancy among the public appears low, which is a positive sign, but Vietnam’s confirmed vaccine orders cover a lower proportion of the population than in some neighboring states, such as Indonesia and Malaysia,” Fitch Ratings said.

“Should the country experience a major COVID-19 outbreak before vaccines are widely rolled out – prompting lockdowns – growth prospects and public finances could be affected.”

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Nowhere else in Vietnam serves up leftovers like Hue – the country’s ancient capital – where yesterday’s rice is the hottest item on the menu.

In Hue’s city center, where tourists abound, bun bo Hue – a beef and vermicelli soup famous in the ancient capital – may be the most popular dish at local street stalls.

But walk just a few minutes from the city’s famous and attractions and visitors will find themselves immersed in a culinary world centered around a rather peculiar ingredient: leftover rice, known in Vietnamese as com nguoi .

For day laborers, the leftover rice served with bun bo Hue is integral, giving them the extra energy they need to work from dawn till noon.

Arguably, Hue is a city which runs on yesterday’s rice.

An unknown version of bun bo Hue

Hue’s Gia Hoi Islet is a hotbed of bun bo stalls, with the area surrounding Bach Dang, Chi Lang, To Hien Thanh, Nguyen Du, and Chua Ong Streets doubling as the epicenter of the city’s traditional cooking styles.

The close observer will notice that most of the bun bo stalls there have a lunchbox sitting near the service area.

Inside the lunchbox is the stall owner’s leftover rice, an ingredient that many locals agree is necessary in order to enjoy bun bo in true Hue fashion.

Cultural researcher Tran Dinh Son said serving leftover rice with bun bo dates back to the 1950s and 1960s when vendors, after running out of fresh vermicelli, would wander around the city selling their leftover ingredients – chopped pig’s feet, cooked beef, pig blood curd, and meatballs – to those who would have them with leftover rice.

A bowl of bun bo broth and rice in Hue. Photo: Thai Loc / Tuoi Tre

Strange servings

Com va or ‘slurping rice’ is another traditional dish in Hue which has not yet made it on tourists’ radar screen.

This dish consists of large strings of vermicelli, julienned pork ham, banana flowers, herbs, and a spoonful of chicken broth.

Long ago, the people of Hue enjoyed leftover rice in a variety of ways, including by munching on it with shrimp paste and fresh chili, or topping it with fat, shrimp sauce, and hot pepper flakes.

Hue’s famous mam tom chua or sour fermented shrimp paste is made using cooked glutinous rice which adds a sweet taste and thickens the dish.

According to many mam tom chua enthusiasts, the dish must be prepared with leftover rice rather than glutinous rice in order to embody the true Hue spirit.

Worker’s food for royalty

It would not be right to talk about leftover rice without mentioning com hen or baby mussel rice.

Nguyen Thi Phuong Nga, the owner of an eatery at 17 Han Mac Tu, Hue City, says she cooks rice early in the morning and waits for it to cool down before making baby mussel rice. Photo: Thai Loc / Tuoi Tre

Hoang Tung De – a cousin of Vietnam’s last emperor Bao Dai – loved eating at street stalls outside of the citadel despite knowing it might ruin his royal status, according to cultural researcher Son.

When Bao Dai was asked about it, the emperor said he “would like to do the same thing but could not.”

There is no official record of whether com hen was served to royals, yet many former servants said the emperor often asked to have vendors cook the dish at the palace.

Leftover rice accounts for much of the food in com hen so it would have been carried along with the vendors in order to serve the royalty.

Later, when Emperor Bao Dai built his palace in Central Highlands city of Da Lat, to cook his favorite dish of com hen , servants released baby mussel breeds in several springs nearby.

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Some 221 practitioners and staffers of Hanoi’s Bach Mai Hospital, one of the largest public health facilities in Vietnam, have turned in their resignation over the past year.

Discussing this issue with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, Nguyen Quang Tuan, director of Bach Mai Hospital, confirmed the mass departure.

Some are highly qualified medical workers who switched to better paying jobs, while a majority are less skilled staffers who became dissatisfied with the hospital’s decision to go fully self-funded instead of relying on state subsidies, or displeased at their job rotation at the facility, Tuan said.

Pressure from the COVID-19 workload is also a possible reason for the mass departure, added Do Van Thanh, head of human resources at Bach Mai Hospital.

While 221 had departed, the facility has also recruited 506 new practitioners and officers, many of whom hold senior medical titles.

“Our hospital is striving for a change in service quality,” Thanh stated.

“Pressures of changes might be the reason for many staffers to leave.”

The Ministry of Health, the immediate managing body of Bach Mai Hospital, demanded a full list of resigned staffers along with an explanation from the hospital management after being informed of the situation in February.

“The hospital is responsible for the administration and usage of human resources in their facility,” a Ministry of Health official stated.

In a responding report submitted on March 22, the hospital leaders cited the reduced benefit package, which stems from the poor revenue that the institution reported during the pandemic, as the reason for the mass resignation.

Bach Mai Hospital also requested the Ministry of Health to raise the price ceiling for medical services to improve its returns, which will help uplift the income of personnel.

The report also mentioned tempting job offers from private hospitals that target highly-skilled practitioners in public facilities, which may cause a ‘brain drain’ from the public sector.

Bach Mai is a central-level hospital in Hanoi under the management of the Ministry of Health.

It receives some 6,000-7,000 visiting patients per day, with an outstanding reputation for many of its departments, including emergency, poison control, rehabilitation, cardiovascular medicine, cancer treatment, and orthopedics.

The hospital faced multiple mishaps in 2020, as it was placed on lockdown for over one month due to a coronavirus outbreak in the facility, plus two of its former executives were detained over allegations of inflating prices of medical equipment .

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Two foreign experts and 14 Vietnamese people who recently arrived in Vietnam from abroad have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, raising the total number of patients in the country to 2,733, the Ministry of Health reported on Wednesday evening.

Illustrative photo

According to the ministry’s report, an Indian man and a US man aged 38 and 58 recently landed at the Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCM City. They were both sent to local quarantine facilities upon arrival.

The two men are now being treated at the Cu Chi Field Hospital for Covid-19 patients.

14 Vietnamese patients include eight men and six women aged between 23-50 who recently returned to Quang Nam, Ba Ria – Vung Tau provinces, and Hanoi, Danang, and Ho Chi Minh cities from Russia, the US, and Japan. They have all been sent to local quarantine facilities upon arrival are now being treated at local hospitals.

With these new infection cases, the number of Covid-19 patients in Vietnam has increased to 2,733, including 910 locally-transmitted cases reported since the new outbreak started in Hai Duong on January 28.

As of 6 pm on April 14, a total of 2,445 Covid-19 patients had recovered and been discharged from hospital. There have been 35 deaths, most of them being the elderly with serious underlying diseases.

At present, nearly 39,000 people who had close contact with Covid-19 patients or returned from virus-hit areas are being monitored at hospitals, quarantine facilities, and at home.