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	Vietnam News Today (June 29): Hanoi prepares plans for mass vaccination scheme

People gather at a kindergarten in District 8, HCMC, to have their samples taken for the new coronavirus test, June 29, 2021. Photo: VnExpress

HCM city embarks on hectic coronavirus testing campaign

Medical forces in HCMC are rushing to collect five million samples in 10 days to detect any possible community Covid cases.

To fulfill its target, 1,000 medical teams have toiled overnight to collect samples across all 21 districts and Thu Duc city since June 26.

On Wednesday night alone, more than 5,000 manual workers, vendors and drivers had gathered at Thu Duc wholesale market to have their nose swabs taken.

Le Huu Hao, chairman of Tam Binh ward of Thu Duc, said as a wholesale market it normally gathers as many as 5,000-7,000 people at once, making it a priority for the testing campaign.

Phan Kim Anh said it took less than 10 seconds to collect one sample but since too many people had shown up at once, the entire process for her and her two daughters had lasted around half an hour.

Hoa Thanh ward will collect around 12,000 samples at different timelines and venues, said Luong Thuy Thanh Van, the ward’s chairwoman.

In District 8, 21,000 people of Ward 9 had been summoned to seven venues on Tuesday night where 150 medics took their samples, cited VnExpress.

HCMC’s Center for Disease Control (HCDC) said earlier it aims to collect around 500,000 samples a day to screen, detect infections and avoid potential outbreak risks in the community.

The exercise comes at a time when Ho Chi Minh city is in the grip of the worst Covid-19 community outbreak ever.

Gov’t allocates US$332 million more for Covid-19 vaccine imports

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has agreed to earmark an additional VND7.65 trillion (US$332 million) for purchasing AstraZeneca and Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines for domestic use.

Under a decision signed on June 30, the Ministry of Health has been assigned to purchase 30 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the Vietnam Vaccine Joint Stock Company (VNVC) and 31 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

With a population of approximately 100 million, Vietnam aims to reach herd immunity by early 2022. Photo: VOV

The government earlier decided to re-purchase 30 million doses under a deal that the VNVC had reached with the AstraZeneca vaccine developer, according to VOV.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health announced in mid-May it had signed a deal with Pfizer/BioNTech to import 31 million doses of its vaccine. the vaccine will be delivered to Vietnam in the third and fourth quarters of 2021.

Vietnam has so far received nearly 4.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, including nearly 2.5 million doses sponsored by COVAX, more than 400,000 doses purchased from the VNVC, and nearly one million doses donated by Japan.

China has also donated 500,000 doses of its Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine called Vero Cell to Vietnam.

Japan recently announced it will donate an additional 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Vietnam. The vaccine is due to arrive on July 1 and July 8.

Vietnam in Group B of World Cup qualifiers’ third round

Vietnam are pooled in Group B alongside Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia, China and Oman in the third round of the 2022 World Cup Asian qualifiers, revealed at online draw held in Malaysia on July 1.

Result of a draw for the third round of the 2022 World Cup Asian qualifiers. Photo: AFC

Meanwhile, Group A includes the Republic of Korea and the five West Asian squads of Iran, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

The groups’ top teams and runners-up will qualify for the 2022 Qatar FIFA World Cup, reported VNA.

Meanwhile, two third-place squads are to face each other and then the winner will play a match with a representative from other continent for a berth at the world's biggest football event.

Vietnam made history for advancing to the third and final round of the World Cup qualifiers for the first time. They were placed in Pot 6 among six groups for the draw, together with Lebanon.

With two wins and one loss in the final matches in Group G of the second qualifiers hosted by the UAE, Vietnam earned 2.79 more points and ranked 11th among 12 teams competing in the third qualifiers.

Ministry announces two growth scenarios for second half

The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MoPI) has devised two growth scenarios for the second half of 2021, said Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong.

At a press conference following the Government’s regular meeting in Hanoi on July 1, Phuong said under the first scenario with a growth target of 6% for the whole year, growth in the third and fourth quarters should reach 6.2% and 6.5%, respectively, provided that the Covid-19 pandemic is basically curbed in July and there are no pandemic clusters in industrial parks and no social distancing in major cities and provinces, cited VOV.

Vietnam aims to obtain GDP growth of 6.2% and 6.5% in Q III and IV. Photo: VOV

To achieve a 6.5% growth rate this year under the second scenario, the country must reach growth of 7% in the third quarter and 7.5% and above in the fourth quarter providing that the pandemic is controlled in June and there are no pandemic clusters in industrial parks and no social distancing in major cities and provinces.

The MoPI reported that the economy encountered challenges in the first half of this year, mostly from Covid-19 outbreaks with new variants, rising prices in real estate, materials, transportation and international trade risks.

In the first half of this year, the country's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 5.64%, higher than 1.82% recorded in the same period last year but lower than 7.05% and 6.77% in the same periods in 2018 and 2019. The consumer price index went up 1.47% in the first half of this year, the lowest since 2016.

As of June 23, credit grew by 5.08% from late 2020 and 15.41% year-on-year.

State budget collections hit 57.7% of the estimate, up 15.3% annually. Total budget expenditure was down 4.9% year-on-year, or 41.2% of the yearly estimate. Food security was still ensured.

Hanoi CPI rises 1.14% in 6 months

Hanoi's average consumer price index (CPI) increased 1.14% in the first six months of this year compared to the same period in 2020, according to the Hanoi Statistics Office.

Hanoi's CPI inched up 0.2% in June as compared to the previous month and up 1.98% compared to the same period last year.

In June, seven out of 11 groups of commodities posted price increases compared to the previous month. Photo: NDO

In June, seven out of 11 groups of commodities posted price increases compared to the previous month with the highest rise in traffic prices due to the increase in oil and petrol prices on June 11 and 26, reported NDO.

The group containing housing, electricity, water, fuel and construction materials also saw price rises in June due to the increasing prices of several construction materials.

Meanwhile, three out of 11 groups of commodities reported a CPI reduction in June compared to the previous month including culture, entertainment and tourism, down 0.18%; restaurants and catering services, down 0.16%; and telecommunications down 0.03%.

In general, Hanoi's CPI in the first six months of this year went up compared to the same period last year, mainly due to the increases in traffic (up 5.21%) caused by price increases in oil and petrol prices, education (up 2.71%) caused by tuition increases, and construction materials (up 2.58%), as well as others.

In the first half of this year, three groups of commodities recorded price declines including culture, entertainment and tourism (down 2.71%), telecommunications (down 1.09%), and restaurants and catering services (down 0.28%).

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