RoK approves over USD75 million aid for Vietnam and 12 developing nations

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Five COVID-19 patients in Vietnam are successfully discharged from hospital on June 29. (Photo: Giadinh.net.vn)

The approval is part of the nation's plans to provide more than USD 400 million in loans and grants to developing nations this year to help them push for health projects against the novel coronavirus.

Vietnam will be among the developing countries to receive official development assistance (ODA) totaling nearly USD 30 million this year from the RoK to fight COVID-19 and accelerate their sustainable development, according to a press release of the RoK’s Foreign Ministry on June 26.

Besides Vietnam, other recipients include Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Ethiopia, Colombia and Cambodia, adding the money is to intensify the RoK’s humanitarian assistance and medical cooperation.

The fund is expected to help developing nations build testing and tracing systems to fight the virus and expand containment facilities in the nations, the ministry said.

The decision on this effect was made on the basis of the comprehensive consideration of the priorities in the RoK’s policies, it said and added that the country will consider whether to increase the recipients of the assistance depending on the cooperation need.

South Korea will also expand its funding for public health projects run by international organizations, including the Asian Development Bank, to USD 10 million, the ministry added.

Globally, approximately 10 million people have been infected by the new coronavirus and 500,000 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University on June 28, less than seven months since the first reported outbreak in China late last year, as the virus is spreading at an alarming pace.

The RoK added 42 cases, including 30 local infections, raising the total caseload to 12,757, reported Yonhap citing the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

The country's government unveiled a three-level social distancing scheme, saying that the country is currently at Level 1, under which the outbreak of daily new virus cases, mostly below 50, is manageable with the current medical system.

Korea, meanwhile, reported no additional deaths, bringing the total death toll to 282. The fatality rate was 2.21 percent.

In an effort to stem the spread of the virus at vacation spots, health authorities plan to advise companies to let their employees extend the use of their summer vacation to early September.

Vietnam, as of June 29, has also gone over 74 consecutive days without any locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, reported VOV.

Most notably, as many as 335 individuals out of the nation’s total of 355 COVID-19 cases have since gone on to make a full recovery from the virus, equal to 94.4 percent of all patients, with no deaths recorded as a result of the virus so far.

Foreign arrivals to Vietnam totalled just 880,000 in June, the lowest figure in many years, as the country maintained a ban on the entry of foreigners that was introduced in March to curb the spread of COVID-19, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

The country earned 10.3 trillion VND (445.26 million USD) in revenue from tourism during the period, down 53.2 percent year-on-year, with the hardest-hit localities being the south-central province of Khanh Hoa, which saw tourism revenue nosedive by 73.5 percent, HCM City, by 71.2 percent, southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, by 66.2 percent, and northern Quang Ninh province, by 60.8 percent.

The opening six months of the year saw the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) rise by 1.81%, a figure that represents the lowest increase for a six-month period between 2011 and 2020, according to figures released by GSO.

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