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COVID-19 Updates

— The Vietnamese Ministry of Health confirmed 92 new COVID-19 cases, including 91 domestic infections, on Monday morning, taking the national caseload to 10,630 patients, with 3,998 recoveries and 59 deaths.

— Authorities in Binh Tan District, Ho Chi Minh City have locked down the entire Ehome 3 apartment complex from 10:00 am on Sunday and will test all of about 7,600 residents there for COVID-19 after an infection chain was determined to be related to this location.

Society

— Functional forces in central Da Nang City had to deal with a fire that broke out at the Khanh Son landfill in Lien Chieu District at around 2:00 pm on Sunday and lasted until the evening of the same day.

— Twelve people were caught hiding in an ambulance to avoid COVID-19 checkpoints on their way from the infection hotbed of Bac Ninh Province to Son La Province on Saturday night.

— The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam is seeking solutions from the Directorate Roads of Vietnam after discovering many passengers using bogus driver’s licenses to go through customs clearance at local airports.

— Traffic police officers under the Ministry of Public Security said on Sunday afternoon that they were investigating an accident between a car and a truck in Hung Yen Province that killed three people on the spot on the same day.

— A rare spotted linsang has been rescued from illegal breeding at a house in Hanoi, the Education for Nature – Vietnam announced on its Facebook page on Sunday.

Business

— A total of 171 tourism enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City registered to withdraw their travel service business licenses from early 2020 to May, according to the municipal Department of Tourism.

Sports

— The International Weightlifting Federation (IFM) has confirmed three Vietnamese weightlifters are qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, raising the number of Vietnamese Olympians to 13.

— “Novak Djokovic claimed a 19th Grand Slam title and became the first man in 52 years to win all four majors twice when he came from two sets down to beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in a gripping French Open final on Sunday,” AFP reported.

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Jeremy Douglas, Regional Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Photo Courtesy of UNODC

Jeremy Douglas, Regional Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for Southeast Asia and the Pacific talked to Việt Nam News reporter Bích Hường about crime prevention and control during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What do you think about the opinion that the COVID-19 pandemic has left many millions of people more vulnerable to crime, exploitation and violence?

This is true. As economies have slowed and in many places slipped into recession people have become more vulnerable to crime and exploitation, or participation in crime to make money. COVID has had some profoundly negative social impacts that have exacerbated vulnerabilities.

Can you briefly tell about the major impacts of the COVID-19 on crime prevention and control since the pandemic started? In the complicated development of the COVID-19 in Việt Nam and some neighbouring countries, does crime prevention and control face more difficulties, particularly drug crimes, human trafficking or smuggling?

COVID-19 has impacted crimes differently. For example, we have witnessed a significant increase in synthetic drug production and trafficking during the pandemic in the Mekong region, but at the same time, we have seen a drop in transnational environmental crimes. The fact is demand patterns are different and some crimes are more resilient or persistent than others.

A report titled “Synthetic Drugs in East and Southeast Asia: latest developments and challenges 2021” that UNODC launched on June 10 reveals that methamphetamine seizures increased substantially despite COVID-19. Organised crime groups have been able to continue the expansion of the regional synthetic drug trade – in particular in the upper Mekong and the Shan State of Myanmar – by maintaining a steady supply of chemicals into production areas despite border restrictions that have impacted legitimate cross border trade.

While the pandemic has caused the global economy to slow down, criminal syndicates that dominate the region have quickly adapted and capitalised. They have continued to aggressively push supply in a conscious effort to build the market and demand.

Seizures of methamphetamine in the region amounted to approximately 170 tons of the drug last year, a 19 per cent increase over the 142 tons seized in 2019. At the same time, there were notable changes in trafficking routes reported with significant volumes of methamphetamine being trafficked through Lao PDR to Thailand and Việt Nam for both market distribution and transhipment, and an extremely high concentration of supply within the Lower Mekong countries of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Việt Nam where 71 per cent of the East and Southeast total was seized.

Are you working with the Vietnamese government to respond to the impacts of the COVID-19 on crime prevention and control?

UNODC and the Government of Việt Nam have a very strong relationship, and we do a lot together in the country and at a regional level to understand and try to prevent transnational and other crimes, and to improve access to justice and necessary services including community-based treatment for drug users.

I would specifically highlight that we work with Việt Nam to counter drug and transnational crime challenges in the Mekong and larger ASEAN regions including on border liaison offices, and in the country, we are working with police and law enforcement on capacity building and in training academies, and with prosecutors and justice officials on reforms and different types of capacity.

Early this year, Việt Nam’s Ministry of Health approved a plan to offer take-home methadone doses. The initiative has been supported by UNODC and UNAIDS.  What do you think about the initiative?

The methadone initiative is very important and we are proud to partner with UNAIDS to move it forward. We very much believe in a balanced and evidence-based approach to addressing drug use and dependence, and prescribing methadone is an important medically proven method to ease people away from the injection of heroin which can lead to HIV transmission.

As many countries around the world have started COVID-19 vaccination drives, the demand for vaccines against COVID-19 is high. What do you think about the possible increase of fake vaccines? Do you have any preparation to curb the threat?

Falsified medicines were a problem before COVID-19 and vaccines are no exception. Vaccines to counter the pandemic are an enormous business. It is one of the largest and most quickly established medical supply chains ever. So COVID-19 vaccines were bound to be seen as an opportunity by criminals.

There are numerous reports of fake vaccines circulating, and it is possible to purchase COVID-19 vaccines in illegal dark web marketplaces – if they are legitimate or not is unclear. To help out, we are training authorities in Asia on dark web and cybercrime investigations, and we are working with anti-corruption authorities on related efforts. VNS

EXHIBITION

“Children draw Hanoi” paintings on display

June 1-15

Hanoi Library displays documents on President Ho Chi Minh

Until June 17

Hanoi Library

Featuring more than 400 documents and newspapers about President Ho Chi Minh and his great contributions to the Vietnamese revolution, and his role in international communist and worker movements.

Vietnam to host first national cultural heritage photo contest

Until November

A national cultural heritage photo contest and exhibition to raise awareness of heritage conservation within the local community.

Hanoi-Liberation Radio

28 May – 13 June 2021

Manzi Exhibition Space, No 2 Hang Bun Street Hanoi-Exhibition “The Mekong – Stories of Man”

Until June 11,

HCMC-A Dream Of The End At The End Of A Dream

Apr 27-June 26, Tues – Sat, 10 am – 7 pm

Binh Dinh Province-Exhibition: ECO-SUS

Opening: Apr 8, 03 pm

Dtinews

WIPO helps Vietnamese firms in IP protection Stepping forward with high-tech

Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Pham Cong Tac speaks at the ceremony. — VNA/VNS Photo Huy Le

The latest ranking was announced by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in New Delhi, India on Wednesday.

With this jump, Vietnam has leapt 17 spots since 2016. This year’s result is also the highest ranking Vietnam has ever achieved.

Switzerland, Sweden, the US, the Netherlands and the UK remain at the top.

The GII 2019 ranks economies based on 80 indicators, from traditional measurements like research and development investments and international patent and trademark applications to newer indicators including mobile-phone app creation and high-tech exports.

This year’s theme was “Creating Healthy Lives – The Future of Medical Innovation.”

Through the theme, GII 2019 focuses on how medical innovation, including the use of artificial intelligence, genomics and mobile health applications, will transform the delivery of healthcare.

Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Pham Cong Tac said Vietnam’s science-technology and innovation sector has made important contributions to national economic growth over recent years, especially in the fields of health care, agriculture and industry.

Growth based on capital and cheap labour is gradually slowing. In order to maintain momentum, Vietnam is shifting to a growth model based on technology and innovation, he said.

The new GII report also stated that Vietnam and the Philippines made significant progress this year. “Both economies improved in most of the GII areas and gained top ranks in high-technology imports and exports,” it said.

Sacha Wunsch Vincent, head of the WIPO’s Composite Indicator Research Section, Economics and Statistics Division and Co-Editor of the GII, hailed Vietnam as a model country among those surveyed by the WIPO over the past three years.

GII’s 80 indicators provide a comprehensive overview of innovation, including political environment, education, infrastructure and business sophistication.

Last year, Vietnam ranked 45th out of 126 countries and economies, up two places from 2017.

Published annually since 2007, the GII is now a leading benchmarking tool for businesses, policy makers and others seeking insight into the state of innovation around the world.

VNS

The city-wide social distancing measure means social events are suspended while gatherings of 20 people or more in one place and of 10 people or more outside workplaces, schools and hospitals are banned. A minimum distance of two meters between people in public places should be ensured.

The extension is justified as the coronavirus still lurks inside the community, and a premature lifting of the social distancing order may give it a chance to proliferate further, said director of the HCMC Department of Health Nguyen Tan Binh.

A previous two-week social distancing period for the city began on May 31 and was supposed to end on Monday, where a similar ban on social events, gatherings of 20 people or more in one place and of 10 people or more outside workplaces, schools and hospitals was in place. Go Vap District and District 12’s Thanh Loc Ward, the center of a major cluster emerging from a Christian mission, underwent a stricter social distancing order, where gatherings of more than two people in public are banned and people are requested to leave home only for emergencies, buying food and medicine, and working in factories, production facilities and businesses that involve “essential” goods and services.

Monday extension means Go Vap and District 12 now apply the same restrictions as other places in the city.

HCMC, home to 13 million people, has recorded 819 local Covid-19 infections in Vietnam’s latest coronavirus wave since late April, having the third-highest number of infections behind Bac Giang and Bac Ninh. The southern metropolis has observed the emergence of several concerning coronavirus clusters which have sparked infections in all its 21 districts and Thu Duc City.

On Sunday the city recorded 95 local Covid-19 cases, its highest number of daily new infections since the disease first appeared in Vietnam early last year.