Vietnam News Today (July 11): Nationwide Coronavirus Vaccination Campaign Officially Launched
	Vietnam News Today (July 10): Vietnam Reports Highest Daily Rise in Infections With 1,616 Cases
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Screening Covid-19 tests in the lab. Photo: VOV

Covid-19: New record set again as daily rise in infections close to 2,000

Vietnam has recorded an additional 707 locally transmitted and six imported cases in 19 cities and provinces nationwide from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. July 11, thus raising its daily count to 1,953.

Most of the locally transmitted cases were documented in quarantine or lockdown areas in southern localities.

Ho Chi Minh city took the lead, registering 354 new cases over six hours, followed by Binh Duong 195, Dong Thap 50, and Long An 46, cited VOV.

Elsewhere 32 cases were recorded in Phu Yen, six in Da Nang, four in Bac Giang and one or two cases in several other central and northern provinces.

Meanwhile, eight Vietnamese people returning from overseas, including Indonesia and Japan, have tested positive in Kien Giang, Khanh Hoa, Binh Dinh and Ninh Binh during the past six hours.

The fresh coronavirus outbreak has shown signs of waning in the north, but new cases are surging in southern and central regions.

Many cases were closely linked to returnees from HCM city, who had been labelled as Covid-19 patients.

Data from the Ministry of Health show Vietnam has detected 1,945 locally transmitted and eight imported cases from 6 a.m. July 10 to 6 p.m. July 11. It was a new record Vietnam has set after logging 1,853 cases the day before.

HCM city, the largest coronavirus hotspot, registered 1,397 cases alone, followed by Binh Duong 234 and Dong Thap 50.

As of 6 p.m. July 11, Vietnam has documented 26,322 new cases during the fresh outbreak in 58 cities and provinces and a total of 29,816 cases since January 2020.

As many as 9,275 patients have recovered from the disease, and 116 patients have died of COVID-19 and other underlying illnesses.

More than 4 million doses of the vaccine have been administered nationwide, with 271,409 people fully receiving two shots.

Over 4 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine administered in Vietnam

As many as 4,040,783 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in Vietnam since the fits shot was given on March 3, the Ministry of Health said on July 11.

Only 271,409 people have fully received two shots against the SARS-CoV-2 virus as recommended by epidemiologists.

With approximately 100 million people, the vaccination rate is rather low in Vietnam as only 4 million doses have been administered since March 8. Photo: VOV

With a population of approximately 100 million in Vietnam the vaccination rate is rather low compared to other countries, while the number of virus infections continues to rise, reported VOV.

The Ministry of Health on July 10 launched a nine-mont long Covid-19 vaccination campaign, the largest of its kind in history, aiming to inoculate three fourths of the population and achieve herd immunity by early 2022.

Vietnam has so far received about 7.5 million doses of vaccines from AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer, and Vero Cell through purchase contracts, COVAX Facility, and bilateral donation between governments.

The Ministry of Health has five times distributed the vaccines to provinces and cities, with priority given to high-risk localities.

HCMC uses social distancing period to ramp up vaccination campaign

HCMC is preparing to administer 1.1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines in two to three weeks amid the swift rise in daily infections.

This would involve one million doses of the Moderna vaccine – part of two million doses donated by the U.S. under the Covax facility and 100,000 doses of the AstraZeneca's vaccine provided by Japan.

People get Covid-19 vaccine shots at Phu Tho Stadium in District 11, HCMC, June 24, 2021. Photo: VnExpress

Those prioritized for vaccine administration are "vulnerable people" located in areas deemed at very high risk and high risk as also priority groups approved by the government, the municipal Department of Health said.

The city plans to organize about 630 vaccination sites in 312 wards and communes across the city. Each site will inject 120 people a day from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. to ensure social distancing, according to VnExpress.

The city has also designated several eligible hospitals to administer injections to groups of "vulnerable people," including those suffering from chronic diseases or at risk based on other factors.

Officials said the city will take advantage of the "golden" period of 15-day citywide social distancing campaign to deploy the vaccination program in parallel with mass testing and contact tracing to quickly contain the spread of the virus.

However, no specific start date was mentioned for administering the latest batch of vaccine doses, though the 15-day social distancing period began Friday.

Pilot vaccine passport program for Phu Quoc nears completion

The tourism ministry is working to complete later this month a pilot Covid-19 vaccine passport program to have foreign tourists back on Phu Quoc Island.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is closely working with authorities in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang, home to Phu Quoc, on the pilot program’s content, which will allow tourists from Europe, America and some Asian countries to visit the island.

While several localities have proposed the vaccine passport program for themselves, Phu Quoc has more advantages, deputy tourism minister Doan Van Viet said, cited VnExpress.

Phu Quoc, Vietnam's largest island off the southern coast, is relatively isolated from the mainland with adequate infrastructure such as airport and accommodation facilities, so it is convenient to pilot the vaccine passport program there, he said.

Sao Beach on Phu Quoc Island off Kien Giang province. Photo: Shutterstock/Evgeny Drablenkov.

Viet also said that in addition to ensuring safety and preventing the spread of disease in the island and elsewhere, there are many issues that need to be resolved, including passports, immigration, accommodation as well as tourist routes.

The health ministry is preparing to vaccinate for all residents on Phu Quoc Island so that it can reopen its doors to foreigners.

Dr. Vu An Dan, Dean of the Faculty of Tourism of Hanoi Open University, agreed that "Phu Quoc is the ideal place to implement this policy."

Due to its isolation from the mainland, pandemic control on Phu Quoc Island would be easier, he said, explaining that the population was not large, making it possible to vaccinate all residents and those working in the tourism industry, Dan said.

Phu Quoc has become a top tourist destination after the government allowed foreigners visa-free entry for 30 days starting in 2014. Tourism is the mainstay of the island’s economy, and last year the number of tourists fell by 30.6 percent, with that of international tourists falling 76.1 percent year-on-year.

Bac Giang earns over US$296 million from lychee sales in 2021 crop

The 2021 Thieu lychee crop has generated over VND 6.8 trillion (over US$296 million) in revenues from fruit sales and related services for the northern province of Bac Giang, according to the provincial People’s Committee.

Workers select qualified lychees for export at a factory in Luc Ngan district, Bac Giang province. Photo: VNA

Farmers in the province sold more than 215,000 tonnes of Thieu lychee this year, up over 50,000 tonnes from the 2020 crop, for an average price of 19,800 dong (US$0.86) per kg, VNA reported.

Of the amount, 126,000 tonnes (58.6 percent) were sold on the domestic market and more than 89,000 tonnes (41.4 percent) were export. Besides the traditional market of China, Bac Giang’s Thieu lychees have also found their way into many other countries such as Japan, the US, Australia, and those in Southeast Asia, the EU and the Middle East.

Bac Giang plans to keep the area under Thieu lychee stable at 28,100 ha in the 2022 crop while expanding the acreage of lychee cultivated under VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards as well as the areas with cultivation area codes for export to the US, Japan and China.

The province will continue to encourage the application of advanced cultivation techniques for better fruit quality and higher value, towards increasing export of the local specialty fruit.

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