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A heavy downpour battered Ho Chi Minh City early on Friday morning and submerged many parts of the metropolis.

A thundercloud had caused torrential rain in the southern provinces of Dong Nai, Binh Duong, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau on Thursday night and early Friday morning before moving to Ho Chi Minh City, the southern hydro-meteorological station reported.

The southern metropolis was lashed by a downpour accompanied by gusts and thunder at around 5:00 am the same day, resulting in flooding in many districts that lingered for multiple hours.

A student rides his bicycle along a flooded street in Ho Chi Minh City, April 16, 2021. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre

According to the observation of Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reporters, inundation occurred on such streets as Kha Van Can, Hiep Binh, and To Ngoc Van in Thu Duc District, Binh Loi in Binh Thanh District, Nguyen Van Khoi and Pham Van Chieu in Go Vap District, and Nguyen Van Qua in District 12.

Many motorbikes broke down, while rainwater also poured into houses along the roads.

Many commuters had to wait on the sidewalks until the water receded.

In District 12, one resident was hospitalized after being hit by an uprooted tree.

Commuters travel on flooded Nguyen Van Khoi Street in Go Vap District, Ho Chi Minh City, April 16, 2021. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre

Following the rain, temperature in the city increased quickly and peaked at around 33 degrees Celsius at between 12:00 pm and 3:00 pm the same day.

However, rain, strong winds, and thunderstorms are still in the forecast in the evening.

Downpours at night and early in the morning are also common during this period as southern Vietnam is going through the transitional phase from the dry season to the rainy season, said Le Dinh Quyet, an official from the southern hydro-meteorological station.

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Vietnam is speeding up its COVID-19 vaccination to ensure the country will have used up the doses provided by COVAX, co-led by the World Health Organization, three weeks before expiry dates.

Coronavirus vaccines tend to have a six-month expiry period but the AstraZeneca shots Vietnam received from COVAX last month are to expire within two months from delivery, the Ministry of Health said during a teleconference on COVID-19 prevention on Friday morning.

On April 1, 811,200 AstraZeneca doses arrived in Vietnam as part of 30 million shots the COVAX scheme had promised to supply to the country free of charge this year.

The COVAX scheme is a facility co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the World Health Organization (WHO), and UNICEF to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines as well as ensure fair and equitable access for every country.

Vaccination is being accelerated in Vietnam following a requirement from the health ministry to make the most out of these vaccine shots.

Vietnam has used merely half of the doses so the health ministry insisted local health authorities administer all of the jabs before May 5, which is three weeks prior to expiration dates.

Inoculation has progressed very slowly since Vietnam started it on March 8, after the country received the first-ever shipment of 1 17,600 AstraZeneca shots via direct purchase from the eponymous company on February 24.

Vietnamese health workers have been cautious about vaccinating people amid reports of blood clotting events in Europe.

Over 73,000 people, including medical staff and other frontline workers, had been immunized against COVID-19 by Friday morning, the health ministry said in a report the same day.

The health ministry added it had recorded zero instances of people suffering blood clots as a postvaccinal complication in Vietnam.

Vietnam had hoped to secure 150 million vaccine shots to vaccinate its population of 97 million this year, but the health ministry has recently said that supply is hard to come by given the stress of the health crisis around the world.

The Southeast Asian country has logged 2,758 COVID-19 cases so far, with 2,445 recoveries and 35 deaths, according to the health ministry’s data.

The world reports up to 800,000 new coronavirus cases each day, with a daily global death count of 1,000-2,000 victims, said Dang Quang Tan, a senior official from the health ministry.

The pandemic is apparently raging again, Tan warned.

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Thailand reported on Friday its fifth record daily tally of coronavirus cases this week, as authorities set up thousands of field hospitals to cope with an influx of patients and lined up hotels to provide extra beds for those without symptoms.

All positive cases have to be admitted into care under Thai rules and with 10,461 patients currently being treated, the medical sector could be put under additional strain.

The government has set up over 20,000 beds at field hospitals across the country at community centres and gyms.

Hotels and hospitals are also partnering up to set up “hospitels” to treat asymptomatic patients, the health ministry said.

Currently 5,000 beds across 23 hotels had been readied, it said in a statement. About 2,000 beds are occupied and an additional 7,000 more could be added.

Hotels already hosting travellers to Thailand for quarantine were best positioned for this, Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi, the president of the Thai Hotels Association, told Reuters .

“They have all the processes in place such as preventing cross contamination, wearing PPE suits, cleaning, making sure floors are not carpeted,” she said.

Hotels register through the health ministry and are matched up with hospitals that require extra beds.

The hotels range from three- to five-star facilities and are mostly in the outskirts of Bangkok, the epicentre of the latest outbreak, which saw 312 new infections on Friday.

Thailand has so far managed to contain the number of cases relative to other countries, but the new outbreak comes as many have travelled during the country’s Songkran new year holidays this week and as vaccination rates are still low.

Thailand reported 1,582 new coronavirus cases on Friday, marking the highest number of daily infections since the start of the pandemic.

The new cases took the total number of infections to 39,038, with deaths remaining at 97.

Authorities aim to get the new outbreak under control within a month, health minister Anutin Charnvirakul said, ahead of an announcement of a series of new measures later on Friday.

The measures being discussed include closing entertainment venues, clubs, bars, massage parlours and schools nationwide for at least two weeks, Anutin said on Thursday.

Military-run Viettel Group and state-owned Saigon Newport Corporation (SNP) on Thursday signed an agreement to cooperate in technology, logistics, and other spheres, with a focus on infrastructure for e-commerce development.

The cooperation agreement is based on the principle of utilizing each side’s available resources, together with researching and developing service ecosystems for their respective partners, according to SNP’s general director Ngo Minh Thuan.

Particularly, Viettel will research an express delivery service for import and export documents at SNP’s ports while the latter will take advantage of the locations of the former’s parcel courier service provider Viettel Post.

The cooperation promises to boost international parcel courier services, facilitating the establishment and expansion of smart warehousing technologies and logistics centers, with a focus on infrastructure for e-commerce development.

A Vietnamese multinational telecommunications company, Viettel’s brand value was recently estimated at US$6 trillion, among the top 500 most valuable brands in the world in 2021, by the leading independent brand valuation and strategy consultancy Brand Finance.

SNP is the largest professional container port operator in Vietnam, accounting for nearly 50 percent of the market share nationwide, and was ranked in the top 20 container port clusters with the largest throughput in the world.

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Traffic in Ho Chi Minh City was heavily congested on Thursday evening after a downpour hit it during the peak hour.

As witnessed by correspondents of Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper at around 6:15 pm, a huge volume of traffic was clogged along the section from Nguyen Van Troi Strreet to Cong Ly Bridge in Phu Nhuan District.

Gridlock was also seen on the route from Tan Son Nhat International Airport to the Hoang Van Thu – Cong Hoa Junction in Tan Binh District, with the queue of delayed traffic to stretch as far as one kilometer.

On Cong Hoa Street’s section heading to the An Suong Junction in District 12, commuters turned exhausted as they had to slog through traffic jams on both ways of the road.

The situation on the Cong Hoa – Hoang Hoa Tham Overpass was considered the most intense.

Vu Hai, a resident of Ward 13 in Tan Binh District, said that traffic jam situations in the city have been intensifying in recent days.

Despite working in District 3, which is no more than eight kilometers away from his home, he recently finds himself spending hours on the street and ends up being home late at night.

Despite the monitoring and control effort of traffic police at congestion hotspots, traffic jams have shown no signs of dwindling so far.

Commuters slog through a traffic jam on Cong Ly Bridge in Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City, April 15, 2021. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre

A motorbike driver in Ho Chi Minh City shows exhaustion after being stuck in traffic congestion under the rain. April 15, 2021. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre

Commuters slog through a traffic jam on Hoang Hoa Tham Street in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, April 15, 2021. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre

A motorbike driver in Ho Chi Minh City runs in the reverse direction, April 15, 2021. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre

Commuters slog through a traffic jam on Cong Hoa Street in Ho Chi Minh City in this photo taken around 7:00 pm, April 15, 2021. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre

Commuters slog through a traffic jam in Ho Chi Minh City, April 15, 2021. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre

A traffic police officer regulates traffic in Ho Chi Minh City, April 15, 2021. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre

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