People carry offerings to a temple inside Huong Pagoda Complex in Hanoi's My Duc District on the opening day, February 11, 2022. Photo: VnExpress

Vietnam records 27,302 new local Covid cases

Health authorities on Saturday confirmed 27,302 new local Covid-19 cases in 60 localities, bringing the inflection tally in the fourth wave so far to 2,454,887 cases.

The three localities with the highest numbers of new cases are Hanoi with 2,981 cases, Nam Dinh with 1,842 cases and Hai Duong with 1,681 cases.

78 deaths were added to the national database on Saturday, including 18 cases in Hanoi and three in HCMC, raising the total number of deaths so far to 38,865 cases.

6,270 Covid-19 patients were announced recovered the same day, bringing the number of recovered cases to 2,218,939 cases, cited VnExpress.

74.6 million have received their second shots and 31.3 million have received their third shots.

Vietnam has recorded 225 infections with the Omicron variant so far, including 11 community cases in HCMC and Hanoi.

Cold spell to cause temperatures to drop as the north faces frosty conditions

A strong cold spell is forecast to hit the country's northern and north-central regions starting from February 13, bringing with it spells of rain, frost, and a drop in temperatures to below six degrees Celsius in some mountainous areas.

According to the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting, scattered rains and showers are expected to hit the north from February 20, with rainfall of between 30mm to 50mm, with this even reaching 70mm in some places.

Photo: VOV

Provinces in the northern and north-central regions are therefore likely to experience temperatures of as low as 11 degrees Celsius, according to VOV.

In addition, temperatures in mountainous areas will fall below six degrees Celsius and frost is forecast at nights and in the early morning.

Elsewhere, Hanoi will face light rain and temperatures ranging between 12 to 14 degrees Celsius.

Vietnam travel firms sell outbound tours as border restrictions ease

Major travel firms in Vietnam have begun selling tours to several Asian countries after the latter relaxed their entry requirements.

Leading travel firm Vietravel is launching a four-day tour package to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap with prices of up to VND19.9 million (US$883.58) and a five-day tour of Maldives, famous for pristine islands with turquoise waters, that costs around VND69 million per person.

Nguyen Nguyet Van Khanh, deputy marketing head of Vietravel said that company officials last month met tourism officials from Thailand, the Philippines and Japan to discuss the resumption of tours to these countries.

Besides focusing on recovery of domestic tourism market, Vietravel, which has begun operating its own airline, would gradually resume outbound tours in the context of many Asian countries reopening their borders to international tourists with eased travel restrictions, Khanh said.

Tourists visit Maya bay after Thailand reopened its world-famous beach after closing it for more than three years to allow its ecosystem to recover from the impact of overtourism, at Krabi province, Thailand, January 3, 2022. Photo: Reuter

HCMC-based Saigontourist is offering a five-day tour package to Maldives with prices of up to VND65.99 million per person that is scheduled to depart February 24 and March 17-31.

The company is also selling a six-day tour package to San Francisco and Los Angeles for nearly VND90 million per person. This tour is scheduled to start on February 26.

A Saigontourist representative said the company would launch tour programs soon to Thailand’s Bangkok and Pattaya, favored tourist destinations among Vietnamese before the pandemic, according to VnExpress.

Nguyen Minh Man, head of marketing at the HCMC-based TST Tourist Co., said his company is ready to resume outbound tours to Southeast Asian countries, Japan and South Korea late this month and early next month.

Tour operators say it is time to resume outbound tours as Vietnam has officially resumed regular commercial flights and regional countries have lifted entry restrictions to welcome back foreign tourists.

Vietnam's aviation industry officially reopened regular flights between Hanoi, HCMC and Bangkok, Phnom Penh, San Francisco, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and Tokyo from Jan. 1 and restarted more routes to Europe late last month.

After nearly two years of border closures due to the pandemic, Laos, the Philippines and Thailand have reopened international tourism with quarantine exemptions.

Vietnam’s largest blood donation festival opens in Hanoi

The Red Spring Festival, the largest blood donation event in Vietnam that turns 15 this year, kicked off in Hanoi on February 12.

Director of the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion (NIHBT) Bach Quoc Khanh, head of the festival organizing board, said the event, held annually after the Lunar New Year holiday, aims to help ensure sufficient blood supply for medical use which, in the past, often faced a serious shortage after the country’s biggest and longest holiday.

First held in the spring of 2008, the festival has attracted hundreds of thousands of participants and received nearly 92,000 units so far. Most of localities nationwide and many agencies, businesses, and organizations have also organized annual blood donation activities on this occasion, reported VNP.

This year’s festival in Hanoi will last for nine days, until February 20, expected to attract 10,000 donors and receive about 7,000 blood units.

Photo: VNP

People can donate at the NIHBT headquarters on Pham Van Bach street of Cau Giay district, the three fixed blood donation locations (No. 26 on Luong Ngoc Quyen street, No. 132 on Quan Nhan street, and No. 10 of Alley 122 on Lang street), as well as the cultural centre of Gia Lam district.

At the festival opening ceremony, Meta - the company running Facebook - and the NIHBT debuted the Blood Donations feature on this social network in Vietnam. This feature will become operational on February 16, enabling donors to easily connect with blood reception facilities.

Vietnam aims for sustainable and responsible fishery by 2050

The nation is making every effort in order to develop its sustainable fishery industry and promote responsible practices, while simultaneously protecting and restoring aquatic resources and preserving local biodiversity.

This makes up part of a draft national plan aimed at protecting and exploiting aquatic resources from 2021 to 2030, with a vision towards 2050.

Under the terms of the plan, the country will not only effectively exploit, but will also protect and recover aquatic resources and preserve biodiversity by 2030, according to details given by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Photo: VOV

Over the coming decade, the nation will strive to promote the sustainable development of the sector and responsible practices in order to meet international standards. The industry will be restructured with more suitable production models, improving product quality, along with good practices relating to environment protection and adaption to climate change.

Moving forward to 2050, the nation hopes to boast both a sustainable and modern fishery sector that is on a level those of its regional and global peers. It is also targeting how to effectively protect and expand biodiversity and improve livelihood and living standard of coastal residents, thereby contributing to ensuring social welfare and safeguarding the national independence and sovereignty, cited VOV.

Furthermore, a total of 28 coastal localities are in the process of redoubling efforts to observe the 2017 Law on Fisheries and remove the European Commission (EC)’s “yellow card” warning placed on local fishery products.

Over the last decade, the country’s fishery output hit 8.4 million tonnes and the industry provided jobs for approximately 4.8 million people, including fishermen and services and logistics workers.

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