Vietnam begins COVID-19 vaccination on March 8 Vietnam launches its COVID-19 inoculation drive on March 8 morning, administering the AstraZeneca vaccine to medical workers in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and northern Hai Duong province – the country’s biggest pandemic hotspot at present. The vaccination is conducted at the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi, the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases and two medical centres in Hai Duong. As many as 100 staff members of the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases are expected to receive the shots in the morning of March 8. The hospital is allocated 450 doses among the first batch of 117,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine the country has received. In Hai Duong, 50 medical workers at Hai Duong city’s medical centre, and 30 others at Kim Thanh district’s medical centre will be the first in the province to be injected. The Ministry of Health has allocated the vaccine to 13 localities, along with the Ministry of National Defence, the Ministry of Public Security and 21 hospitals during the first phase. Among the localities, all having reported COVID-19 cases since the latest wave of outbreaks since January 27, the Hanoi Centre for Disease Control (CDC) is given 8,000 doses, Hai Duong CDC 32,000, and HCM City CDC 8,000. Meanwhile, the Ministry of National Defence and the Ministry of Public Security each receive 30,000 doses. At a meeting on March 6, Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long stressed the need to ensure equality in vaccine access as suggested by the WHO, UNICEF and COVAC. The localities excluded in the first phase should continue to prepare for the inoculation, with training programmes, he said, adding that they would receive the vaccine after the next shipment arrives in Vietnam in March. The ministry will roll out the vaccination in all COVID-19 treatment hospitals, prioritising those involved in frontline work, and those who participate in the pandemic combat in the community like …
Long haul flight
Dual task of Vietnamese sport
Recently, two Vietnamese match officials, referee Bui Thi Thu Trang and assistant referee Truong Thi Le Trinh, made the FIFA shortlist of 750 candidates, from which 56 referees and 100 assistant referees will be selected to officiate at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia/New Zealand 2023. Vietnam is looking to defend its track and field reign at the 31st Southeast Asian Games, to be held on home field later this year. Explaining the reason for proffering the honour, football’s world governing body said Vietnam successfully organised the national women’s tournaments in 2020 thanks to its effective control of the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling referees and assistant referees to maintain their professional activities and form as well as to improve their capabilities. Those objective assessments have contributed to affirming the prestige of Vietnamese sports as a whole in terms of not only women’s football but also other events, in the context that the country is well implementing pandemic prevention and control measures to bring society back to normality. Last year, Vietnam’s sport sector successfully organised 148 national competitions, especially the V.League 1-2020 national football championship with stadiums full of spectators, producing great surprise and winning admiration from international friends. In addition, Vietnam sent many teams to compete in 18 international tournaments, earning a haul of medals and five official berths at the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020. Vietnam maintained a stable training programme for national teams in all sports at the national sport training centre, while opening 16 referee and coach training classes, thus enabling referees, trainers, and athletes to continue improving and honing their professional skills. The aforementioned achievements are prideworthy as many international competitions and also national tournaments in other countries, even developed ones, were either cancelled or suspended for a long time, even …
Dragon Hill: Wake up ‘Forgotten Paradise’
A new resort project right in the open sea of Dragon Hill complex has been submitted for permission to become an attractive island, with the potential to attract tourists for longer stay and to discover more about the beautiful landscapes of the northern city of Hai Phong. Hai Phong is the largest port city in the north of Vietnam and is also the country’s third largest commercial and economic center. The city is just behind Hanoi on scale and rate of development in the north and is one of the five municipalities, one of the national first-grade centers, alongside the central city of Da Nang and the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho. Hai Phong is also known as the “Land of Port,” or “Port City,” as it has plenty of tourism potentials associated with the sea. The city possesses a long coastline of over 125 kilometers, which is low and quite flat. Especially, Do Son in Hai Phong is always one of the most crowded beaches in the north of Vietnam. Only 22 kilometers to the southeast from the center of Hai Phong, Do Son has long been known as an ideal holiday destination, maintaining an important position in the economic and social development of Hai Phong in particular, and the northern coast in general. Despite having many advantages such as convenient transport network spanning across different topographies of sea and mountains, Do Son has yet to utilize its advantages to cover the huge shortage of Vietnamese tourism at the present time. The lack of ideas, models and operational methods has prevented the resorts of standards and quality in the city from running properly promotion and investment to help foster its tourism. Fairly speaking, the geographic location, the people and scenery of Hai Phong and Do Son are highly recognized for the potential tourism development in the country, thanks to the advantage of a trading gateway for customs clearance and shipping. With all necessary and sufficient factors, Hai Phong is always the first choice for investors. …
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