Lieutenant general insignia

According to Commander of Military Region 7 Major General Nguyen Truong Thang, despite the serious impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters, Military Region 7’s armed forces successfully fulfilled all military and defense missions and effectively combated SARS-CoV-2. Particularly, together with building a border patrol road, military units in the region built 34 residential areas near border posts, including 170 houses. The units also constructed around 300 houses for needy ethnic minority people and religious followers. For the 2021 Lunar New Year Festival, agencies and units under the military region formed missions to visit and present gifts to their personnel and local residents, especially those in remote areas, along the border and on islands. These activities helped troops and local people have a cozy and happy New Year. General Thang stressed that Military Region 7 completed all set targets for the enlistment work for this year and all the recruitees had their health checked and tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 before being handed over to military units in the region. Speaking at the meeting, General Lich praised the military region’s armed forces for their achievements in implementing military and defense missions and raising their combat power over the past time. He asked Military Region 7’s leaders to focus on the building of the whole people’s defense posture, defensive areas, and local armed forces. Units under the military region should continue building politically-based armed forces, raising training quality, and combining training with regulation building. The military region should also take measures to build strong Party organizations, raise competence of its personnel, foster cooperation with localities, and contribute to localities’ socio-economic development and defense consolidation, Lich added. Concluding the working session, General Lich expressed hope that personnel of Military Region 7’s armed forces will try …

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Vaccine passports – the future?, illustration photo, source: internet At the end of December, thousands of Europeans received the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine after the company received authorisation in the EU. Since then, other countries such as the US, Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, India, and several Asian countries, including Vietnam, have also started to receive or order vaccines to prepare for mass vaccination programmes. This has awakened optimism about an end to the pandemic and the idea of a vaccine passport. A heated discussion Some parts of the world, such as the Seychelles, Cyprus, and Romania, have begun to remove quarantine requirements for visitors who have been vaccinated. In early January, Denmark also announced that it would issue vaccine passports to citizens within the next three to four months. To get digital vaccine passports, Danish citizens will have to declare their medical and vaccination status on a government-issued app. Owners of such passports will be able to return to Denmark without quarantine and receive access to bars, restaurants, and hotels. Iceland became the first European nation to issue vaccine certificates in late January. While Greece also announced it will unveil a digital vaccination certificate for those who have received two doses of the vaccine, Israel recently announced that a so-called Green Badge will allow vaccinated people to go to restaurants, attend public events, and travel freely. Other countries that are currently issuing or waiting for vaccine passports include the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, and Sweden. Despite being supported by several countries and seen as a necessary condition for freedom of movement, vaccine passports have received mixed reactions in many places. The UK, the first in the world to vaccinate people against COVID-19, had previously denied plans for vaccine passports to allow people to travel abroad, but …

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When his roommates turn the lights off to go to bed at 10 p.m., Hoang Minh is just starting his eight-hour shift at work. Sitting with a laptop on his bunk bed, the 21-year-old enters information about overseas orders his company has received into the system. "This job just needs hands and eyes," he says. Because of the Covid-19 outbreak, Minh was allowed to work from his room in Hanoi's Cau Giay District. But within two days the company required him to return to office since his output had been lower than normal. His salary has remained at VND6 million ($260) a month since he began working here since 2019. Hoang Minh doing his data entry work in his room in Hanoi's Cau Giay District. Photo courtesy of Minh. After dropping out of college, the young man from central Vietnam had been dreaming of working in the technology field, a job he perceived as "computer-related." But instead he ended up with a data entry job. After two months of working through the night and going home to sleep in the morning, he quit just after the 2020 Lunar New Year ( Tet ) just as Covid-19 first appeared in Vietnam. He began to apply for all sorts of jobs. However, the pandemic was causing a huge number of layoffs. According to the General Statistics Office, the employment rate in the first quarter of 2020 was the lowest in 10 years. Minh got a job as a bank credit officer, who had to persuade individuals and businesses to borrow. But there was no salary and instead employees got paid based on performance. This time he quit after just one month. He then worked as a real estate agent and quit again when he could not find a single client in three months. During that time he had to borrow money just to eat. Around this time a former colleague and friend also wanted to quit his data entry job, and Minh texted him saying: "Don't be foolish to quit your job at this critical time. I really regret my action now." Luckily for him, his old company again …

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