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Loship secures investment from Skype co-founder

March 1, 2021 by vietnamnews.vn

Loship will use the investment to expand its delivery network, human resource, technology and market. — Photo tvphapluat.vn

HÀ NỘI — Loship, Việt Nam’s fast-growing one-hour-delivery e-commerce startup, has announced its latest investment from Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn.

Tallinn participated in Loship’s Series C funding through his investment vehicle MetaPlanet Holdings.

This capital injection marks Loship as the first portfolio company of MetaPlanet in Việt Nam and Southeast Asia. The investment comes four months after the startup secured capital in a bridge round led by Vulpes Investment Management.

According to Loship CEO Nguyễn Hoàng Trung, the fresh capital will be spent on expanding the firm’s delivery network, human resource, technology and market.

“A huge portion of the funding will be poured into upgrading our app and developing technologies in Loship,” Trung said, adding that they will also ramp up their marketing strategies to cement Loship’s presence in the domestic market.

“It didn’t take me very long to realize Loship was on to something,” Loship quoted Tallinn as saying in its announcement.

“MetaPlanet is planning to pay more attention to the rapidly growing economies in Southeast Asia. So I’m delighted to be off to a strong start in Việt Nam by adding Loship as our first portfolio company there.”

Founded in 2017, Loship traces its roots back to Lozi, a review app allowing users to find food, beverage, and coffee shops, before transitioning into a one-hour-delivery services platform.

Loship has closed its series A and B rounds from investors such as South Korea’s Smilegate Investment, Hana Financial Group, DTNI, and Golden Gate Ventures. — VNS

Vietnam requires compulsory medical declaration for citizens from March 10

March 9, 2020 by hanoitimes.vn

The Hanoitimes – Medical declaration will be used merely for the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic.

Vietnam will require all residents to make compulsory medical declaration from March 10 in an effort to curb the outbreak of the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam at the meeting on March 8. Photo: VGP

The declaration will contribute to the national combat against the Covid-19 epidemic, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, head of the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control, said at a meeting on Sunday morning.

Health information will be used merely for the prevention and control of the epidemic, according to the committee.

The Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Health, Vietnam Social Security, and IT agencies will assume responsibility for the implementation.

So far, Vietnam has required compulsory medical declaration for all people coming to the country. But the move is not enough when the country has already entered the second phase of the battle against the epidemic, the deputy PM said, noting that this phase is much more severe.

Compulsory health declaration is required after a Vietnamese woman ignored the request when she returned to the country from a European trip that included a visit to Lombardy, an epicenter in Italy.

After she tested positive with the new coronavirus on March 6, Vietnam found 13 more cases within two days, including 10 on the same Vietnam Airlines flight as her.

Vietnam has identified crew members and passengers of the flight and applied quarantine and medical check.

Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam predicted that the number of infection cases will continue rising in the days ahead.

The northern province of Quang Ninh has become the first locality to require the health declaration. Since March 8, around 300,000 residents in Ha Long city have filled out medical inquiries after four foreign visitors got infected with the virus. The visitors were on board the same plane from London to Hanoi as the woman who was the first infected case of Hanoi.

Vietnam to commence human trials on second home-grown COVID-19 vaccine in early March

March 1, 2021 by en.nhandan.org.vn

>>> VND20 billion offered for home-grown COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial study

>>> Nearly 300 volunteers in Long An engage in second-stage trials of Nano Covax

Protecting against new SARS-CoV-2 variants from the UK and South Africa

IVAC’s COVIVAC vaccine research project started from May 2020 on the basis of cooperation with the relevant universities, research institutes and international organisations.

IVAC Director Dr. Duong Huu Thai shared that the vaccine phase 1 and phase 2 clinical research protocols have been approved by the National Ethical Council in Biomedical Research and the Ethical Councils at grassroots level.

IVAC is scheduled to kickstart the clinical trials at National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) and Hanoi Medical University in early March and will conclude by this October.

According to Dr. Thai, volunteers participating in the study include 120 healthy persons, aged 18-59, both male and female. They will receive two injections of 0.5 ml each (vaccine or placebo injection) 28 days apart.

Phase 1 will study the safety and immunogenicity on four groups of different doses: 1mcg, 3mcg and 10mcg of Protein S antigen without adjuvants and 1mcg with adjuvants, along with a placebo control group (using vaccine-free ingredients) to evaluate safety and immune response to select the two optimal vaccine groups, then moving to Phase 2.

After the 1st injection, the volunteers will be medically monitored for 24 hours at the Hanoi Medical University. After the second, medical monitoring time will be four hours.

Phase 2 will be conducted at the Medical Centre of Vu Thu District, Thai Binh Province. Volunteers will include 300 healthy people, aged 18-75 (of which age 60-75 accounts for about one third), both male and female.

After Phase 1 (after 43 days of injection), if the immunosecurity results are good and the optimal dose is selected, the vaccine will continue to Phase 2. Volunteers will receive two injections of 0.5 ml each (vaccine or placebo injection) 28 days apart.

Phase 2 will study the safety and immunogenicity on two groups of vaccines with the optimal doses selected from Phase 1, with the addition of a placebo control group (which does not contain the vaccine ingredients) and in coordination with data from Phase 1 to assess the safety and efficacy of two vaccine groups in larger populations, from which considering switching to Phase 3.

Dr. Thai said that each dose of COVIVAC vaccine does not exceed VND60,000 (about US$2.6) in cost. The vaccine protects against new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus found in the UK and South Africa, he affirmed.

“Very good” protective effect

COVIVAC is a liquid vaccine with or without adjuvants, without preservatives, and the production technology using the Newcastle disease virus (NDV) vaccine vector with the S gene of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine attached to produce vaccines in chicken eggs containing embryos. This technology is also used to produce vaccines to prevent seasonal flus circulating in Vietnam.

The results of pre-clinical studies in India, the USA and Vietnam have shown both safety and efficacy. After seven months of research (May to December last year), IVAC has successfully produced three consecutive batches on a large scale, with 50,000-100,000 doses per batch.

The vaccine batches for clinical trials have been assessed for quality by the manufacturers and the National Institute for Control of Vaccines and Biologicals, which has certified six batches of finished vaccines. COVIVAC has also undergone preclinical tests for toxicity, immune response, and protective effects on domestic and foreign laboratory animals.

Minister of Health Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thanh Long confirmed that the protection effect of COVIVAC is “very good.”

“Previously, we carried out pre-clinical assessment in Vietnam, but the IVAC’s COVIVAC vaccine has been evaluated not only in Vietnam but also in the US and India. The test results at the relevant centres were all the same, showing that the vaccine is effective,” said the minister.

Assessing the advantages of the IVAC in conducting the research, production and testing of COVIVAC, Minister Long said that this is a multi-centre and international study.

COVIVAX vaccine is developed on the technological lines and vaccine factories available in the country and domestic manufacturers completely master the technologies.

In addition to the NANOGEN’s vaccine – Nano Covax, which is in Phase 2 of testing, the minister said that COVIVAC is considered a potential vaccine in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nano Covax is the first home-grown vaccine and its second phase of human trials stared at the Military Medical University in Hanoi and the Mekong Delta province of Long An on February 26.

In the near future, Vietnam will start clinical trials on the third made-in-Vietnam vaccine produced by the Company for Vaccine and Biological Production No. 1 (VABIOTECH), Long shared, adding that with the production of the vaccine, Vietnam can be proactive in securing supply and ensuring health security, as well as stand ready to serve in pandemic response.

Cambodia adopts law on COVID-19 preventive measures

March 1, 2021 by en.qdnd.vn

The draft law on measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other deadly and serious infectious diseases, which consists of six chapters and 18 articles, was approved on February 28 during a Cabinet Meeting chaired by Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Earlier, the country’s Health Ministry created a task force, headed by Army Commander Lieutenant General Hun Manet, to manage security and public order at quarantine centres.

Meanwhile, Laos’ National Taskforce Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control is requiring all foreign citizens entering Laos to purchase COVID-19 insurance, in addition to other travel documents and requests for permission to enter the country.

Non-Lao citizens wishing to enter Laos must contact their embassy concerning COVID-19 insurance, which will cover the cost of any medication prescribed in the event that the policyholder contracts the virus, as well as wearing a health tracking device.

The special insurance is now required because ordinary health and travel insurance policies do not provide cover against pandemics, including any incidents relating to COVID-19.

Given the cost of hospital treatment and the possible need for repatriation, especially when considering quarantine requirements, the government is concerned that it could be responsible for unpaid hospital bills if foreigners contract the virus and are unable to pay for treatment.

Source: VNA

Malaysian PM highlights government’s one-year achievements

March 1, 2021 by en.qdnd.vn

Addressing the conference, the PM said the Government has managed to ensure people’s lives and livelihoods, describing its achievements last year as positive when every issue related to education, society, health care, security, and national solidarity received attention.

One of the important plans the Government has carried out include a stimulus package worth 250 billion RM (61.7 billion USD) issued on March 27, 2020, that was designed to protect people, support enterprises, and consolidate the economy.

Later, another 15 billion RM package was unveiled to cope with the COVID-19 outbreak, protect people’s welfare, and keep business activities uninterrupted under the pandemic’s impact.

Most recently, the Malaysian Government has launched the national COVID-19 vaccination plan with a view to giving injections to about 80 percent of the population. This plan will be carried out until February 2022 and divided into three phases, according to the PM.

To curb the coronavirus transmission, the Government has also tightened the movement control order but still allowed new business households to operate under strict standard operating procedures (SOP) in the areas recording high infections, known as “red zones”, so as to ease the pandemic’s impact on small-scale traders.

It is set to provide additional assistance for the poor and the businesses unable to reopen while paying focus on national digitalisation and reform.

The unemployment rate in Malaysia dropped to 4.8 percent in December 2020, and the country’s economy is expected to resume growth from the second quarter this year.

Source: VNA

Vietnam joins WTO negotiations on fisheries subsidies

March 1, 2021 by sggpnews.org.vn

The Vietnamese delegation actively participated in the discussions with the aim of reaching consensus and promoting negotiations in order to early achieve satisfactory solutions for all parties, towards realising the sustainable development goal (SDG) 14.6 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the UN.

At a meeting of heads of delegation to the WTO, Chair of the WTO negotiating group, Ambassador Santiago Wills of Colombia, briefed the participants on the work that has been done since January 2021.

Wills reiterated that the WTO members should begin to express their views on an acceptable outcome that can lead the successful conclusion of negotiations, aiming to protect aquatic resources worldwide.

Many statements delivered at the meeting noted the differences of views on the three issues discussed in the latest negotiation round, while proposing to use many different forms of negotiation to find solutions to narrowing the differences.

A number of members welcomed the call of new WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on February 15 to introduce the WTO’s new rules on fisheries subsidies as soon as possible in 2021.

The next round of negotiations on fisheries subsidies will start on March 15. WTO members can also conduct consultations before the next round of negotiations.

The WTO’s 11th Ministerial Conference (MC11) and SDG 14.6 give negotiators the task of securing an agreement on eliminating subsidies for illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and to prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing by the end of 2020. WTO members committed to build on their 2020 progress and reach a resolution in 2021.

SDG 14.6, part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by all United Nations member states, including Vietnam, in 2015, affirms the WTO’s role in the global fisheries subsidies agenda.

It targets to “by 2020, prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies which contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, and eliminate subsidies that contribute to IUU fishing, and refrain from introducing new such subsidies, recognising that appropriate and effective special and differential treatment for developing and least developed countries should be an integral part of the WTO fisheries subsidies negotiation.”