Photo: Zing

Vietnam reports additional 48,717 Covid-19 cases on April 4

A total of 48,717 new Covid-19 cases were reported in Vietnam on March 4, marking it the first time the country has reported less than 50,000 daily infections since February 21.

The new transmissions bring the total caseload in the country to 9,867,045 since the start of the pandemic Out of the new cases, two were imported and quarantined upon arrival. Also on March 4, 42 Covid-19 related deaths were also announced, raising the total death toll to 42,642.

The capital city of Hanoi still had the highest number of infections, with 5,568, followed by Dak Lak (3,925) and Bac Giang (2,649) provinces.

Photo: Zing

Vietnam to issue vaccine passports starting April 15

Vietnam will begin issuing vaccine passports from April 15, the Health Ministry announced on April 4. Head of the ministry's Department of Information Technology Do Truong Duy said that to date the preparation work for the issuance has been completed.

The passport will be available on PC Covid-19 or Digital Health apps. If people don’t have the apps, they can get their passports by accessing the health ministry's portal and filling in the necessary information. They will then receive the passports by email. People will not be able to get vaccine passports in cases their vaccination information is wrong or they’re not fully vaccinated, Duy said, adding that people should re-check their vaccination information themselves to report errors.

Vietnam's vaccine passport entails information like one's name, date of birth, the disease which they're vaccinated against, the number of shots, and the date of vaccination. Data will be encoded into a QR code. The QR code will expire after 12 months. Following their expiry, people will be notified and a new QR code will be created instead. According to the ministry, as of April 3, Vietnam had administered over 206.5 million vaccine doses. The ministry and localities are preparing to vaccinate children aged between 5-11 in early April.

Photo: Zing

Hanoi to get 1-6 grade students back to school

The People’s Committee of Hanoi has agreed with the municipal Department of Education and Training’s proposal to get pupils from first to sixth grades in 30 districts and townships across the city back to school for face-to-face learning from April 6 after a long period of online learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic's impacts.

Schools are requested to ensure safety against Covid-19 in line with the guidance given by the Department of Education and Training and the Department of Health while making preparations and plan to respond to the situation where Covid-19 infections are detected in schools. The Steering Committees for Covid-19 Prevention and Control of the districts are authorized to consider the suspension of direct learning to ensure utmost safety for students in case infections are found in classes and schools.

The People’s Committee of Hanoi assigned the Department of Education and Training to coordinate with the Department of Health to regularly update and provide localities with information on regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training and Ministry of Health regarding the organization of educational activities, and guiding them on the implementation.

The People’s Committees of districts and townships are responsible for making decisions on the organization of direct learning in line with their real pandemic situation while continuing to improve the capacity for school medical forces.

Photo: VNA

RoK waives quarantine, extends labor contracts for Vietnamese workers

The Republic of Korea (RoK) has decided to continue waiving the mandatory seven-day quarantine and extend labor contracts for eligible Vietnamese workers. The RoK Government recently removed Vietnam, along with Myanmar and Ukraine, from the list of countries subject to tightened Covid-19 control measures.

Accordingly, from April 1, Vietnamese workers entering the RoK continue to be exempted from seven-day quarantine if they have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Apart from vaccination certificates, they also need to have a certificate of negative Covid-19 test results prior to their departure and have their QR code checked when arriving in the RoK.

In addition, workers whose labor contracts expire from April 13 will have their contracts automatically extended. This is the third consecutive extension since April 13, 2021, which is considered one of the solutions to the labor shortage in this Northeast Asian country amid the serious impacts of the pandemic.

Talking to the Vietnam News Agency, Pham Minh Duc, head of the management office for Vietnamese workers under the RoK’s Employment Permit System (EPS) program, said since the start of 2022, there are about 100 workers going to the RoK under the EPS program every week, but they are subject to concentrated quarantine. After the RoK Government decided to relax anti-pandemic rules for foreigners on April 1, the number of Vietnamese workers entering this country under the EPS program is likely to surge in the time ahead, he noted.

Vietnam Covid-19 Updates (April 4): Daily Infections Keep Falling Sharply As of 6 pm on April 3, Vietnam has confirmed 9,818,328 Covid-19 cases since the start of the outbreak, ranking 12th out of 227 countries ...

Vietnam Covid-19 Updates (April 3): Daily Infections Fall to One Month Low As of 6 pm on April 2, Vietnam has confirmed 9,716,282 Covid-19 cases since the start of the outbreak, ranking 12th out of 227 countries ...

Vietnam Covid-19 Updates (April 2): Daily Infections Fall Sharply to 72,000 As of April 1, Vietnam has detected 9,650,663 Covid-19 cases since the start of the outbreak, ranking 12th out of 225 countries and territories worldwide.