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A year on since the Covid-19 pandemic first began Vietnamese are taking more control of their health and finance, driving greater interest in fitness and well-being along with insurance and retirement planning. — Photo courtesy of Manulife HCM CITY — A year on since the Covid-19 pandemic first began Vietnamese are taking more control of their health and finance, driving greater interest in fitness and well-being along with insurance and retirement planning, as Asia looks to the longer-term impact of the disease, according to new research from Manulife. The latest version of the ‘Manulife Asia Care Survey’ takes a closer look into customers’ concerns, priorities and aspirations, polling 4,000 people across the region who either own insurance or intend to buy it in the next six months, including around 520 in Việt Nam. Nearly all (95 per cent) of those who worry most about Covid have made an effort on a personal level to improve their overall health, mostly through more regular exercise (58 per cent) and improved diet (54 per cent). In Việt Nam, all the respondents said they had taken action to help them manage Covid, with 72 per cent saying this included doing more regular exercise. More people in Hà Nội (85 per cent) do more regular exercise than in HCM City (73 per cent). Almost everyone is self-monitoring health, and Vietnamese pay the most attention to the number of steps walked (44 per cent) among the four emerging markets covered in the survey, against a regional average of 38 per cent. Three out of five (60 per cent) of Vietnamese also own fitness wearables, well above the regional average of 46 per cent. A large majority of Vietnamese (79 per cent) also said retirement planning has become more important since Covid-19 started, below the Philippines (90 per cent), Indonesia (88 per cent) and Malaysia (83 per cent) but higher than all the developed markets. The regional average is 73 per cent. This high level of interest in …

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Nguyen Thanh Tung, 22, graduated from university in June 2020, and was thrilled to enter a new stage in life. But reality turned out to be harsher than he thought as he spent four months looking for a job in Hanoi and HCMC only to be repeatedly told "they will contact me when the Covid-19 pandemic is contained." He then decided to apply for a graduate course in the U.S. and was admitted, but the university has canceled on-campus classes meaning Tung cannot leave. "It is like someone has pressed the pause button on my life, and I do not know how to find my play button amid this pandemic." Millions of other young people share his plight as colleges are closed, jobs are hard to find and mental and financial issues grow. A man wears a protective mask as he drives past a banner promoting prevention against the Covid-19 pandemic in Hanoi, Vietnam July 31, 2020. Photo by Reuters/Kham. Many students have been unable to cope with virtual classes and the hiatus in extracurricular activities. "Sometimes I cannot keep track of the lessons, or just get bored of sitting in front of the computer for hours, and so feel like I have failed to prepare well enough for my final exams," Nguyen Ba Nghia, a sophomore at the Hanoi University of Science and Technology, said. Many young people have also been severely affected by the job market slump . The International Labor Organization (ILO) said last year the youth unemployment rate in Vietnam was 10.8 percent, compared to 6.9 percent in 2019. It defined youths as workers aged 15 to 24. In the third quarter the youth unemployment rate was 7.24 percent, 4.2 times the rate among people aged over 25. On Facebook groups for headhunters and applicants, many people, mostly those embarking on a career, complain about how difficult it is to find a job. "I spent five months looking for a job and got an internship, and then they told me they will not sign a contract because they want to cut their spending amid …

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An increasing number of hospitals in Vietnam are adding robotic surgery to their medical arsenal, hoping the extra set of mechanical hands will help give their patients some much needed relief. Robotic surgery, computer-assisted surgery, and robot-assisted surgery are terms for technological developments that use robotic systems to aid in surgical procedures. In 2014, the Vietnam National Children’s Hospital in Hanoi was the first to deploy the U.S.-made DaVinci surgery system for children's endoscopic operations. Between 2016 and 2017, more modern versions of the DaVinci robot began appearing at Binh Dan Hospital and Cho Ray Hospital, both located in Ho Chi Minh City, as well as at Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi. Dr. Pham Gia Hien, head of the pediatric neurosurgery center of Vietnam National Children’s Hospital, stressed that this type of technology, despite its astronomical cost, is the future of surgery. A wonder tool for surgeons In February 2019, the People's Hospital 115 in Ho Chi Minh City amazed medical experts with a successful brain operation using a system known as Modus V Synaptive II from Canada. This state-of-the-art surgery tool cost US$2.3 million, and marked its host hospital as the pioneer in applying robotic assistance in neurosurgery. The equipment will aid the hospital’s staff with its 2,350 yearly neurological operations. On February 15, surgeons at the People's Hospital 115 spent a mere 1.5 hours performing a successful brain tumor operation on a female patient from Tay Ninh, a province neighboring Ho Chi Minh City. Such an achievement came with the expertise from Dr. Chu Tan Si - head of the nerve surgery department - who undertook training in the U.S. in 2017 and in Switzerland in 2018, and the assistance of Professor Amin Kassam - vice-president of neurosciences at Aurora Health Care, a U.S.-based non-profit health care network. "Thanks to the robotic system, operations can take place in a much shorter amount of time …

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