Buddhists pray online due to COVID-19 outbreak Blood shortage warned as donations postponed due to COVID-19 outbreaks The resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic in many cities and provinces in recent weeks has seriously affected the blood supply for medical treatment. Although many people and organisations responded to the call of blood donation by the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion (NIHBT) on February 19, the amount of blood received per day was still only a few hundred units while the average need for treatment each day is from 1,200 to 1,500 units. There is usually a shortage of blood during the Tết (Lunar New Year) holiday as the holiday lasts long while blood has a short shelf life and many patients still need blood transfusions during Tết. This year, the pandemic's resurgence has made the shortage after Tết even worse. Before Tết, 30 entities requested to postpone or cancel blood donation plans which meant the NIHBT missed out on receiving more than 8,000 units. After the holiday, the institute received information about the delay of 24 more blood donation plans from now to the end of March with an expected donation of 5,000 units. In addition, the blood donation schedule in March cannot be confirmed because it depends on the university and college's return to the school schedule. This means the blood reserves of the institute are decreasing. If this situation continues, blood reserves will decrease to an alarming threshold, fell into a state of scarcity and seriously affect the blood supply to health facilities. The Institute’s director Bạch Quốc Khánh said: “The estimated blood demand for emergency and treatment in February and March of the institute is about 50,000 units.” “With blood donation schedules maintained up to now, there was still a shortage of about 20,000 units, seriously affecting the provision of 177 medical facilities in 28 provinces and cities in the north with about 41 million …
Vietnam life %e2%80%8b%e2%80%8bho chi minh city seeks feedback on new administrative building
Poor infrastructures plague HCMC western gateway
Unfinished connection from Vo Van Kiet Street to National Route 1A One of the most frequently congested areas is the Nguyen Van Linh overpass - National Route 1A, the intersection linking HCMC and cross-region highways which receive insane traffic each day. As a result, some narrow sections of these streets have become degraded faster, making the traffic jams and air pollution more severe. IDICO, a prominent urban development company, in the past proposed a BOT project to get funds for upgrading the National Highway running through An Suong - An Lac, involving expanding the road to accommodate four car lanes and two mix-traffic lanes. The project was worth VND1,880 billion at the time (about US$81.5 million, but never came to fruition due to administrative complications. Besides the aforementioned locations, many other sections along major highways cannot meet the increasing traffic volume such as sections on national routes 1A and 50, Dinh Duc Thien Street and others, which are also hotspots of traffic collision. According to leaders of Binh Chanh District, the locality will focus on external traffic and upgrade main roads, parallel roads, and bypasses to relieve congestion. From now to 2025, the district proposes to invest in upgrading and expanding 30 road projects and building 31 new ones with a total length of some 86km. On a municipal level, HCMC Department of Transportation is constructing a project for the period of 2020 - 2030 to develop all 4 gateway areas of the city, as well as upgrading the roads connecting Nguyen Van Linh Street to Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong highway. The city also determines to solve traffic problems before approving more apartment complex projects in these areas. Quoc Hung - Translated by Tan Nghia …
[Read more...] about Poor infrastructures plague HCMC western gateway
World News in Brief: February 26
* China and India should firmly follow the right path of mutual trust and cooperation between neighboring major countries, and not go astray with suspicion and distrust nor fall back on a road of negative retrogression, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Thursday. Wang made the remarks in a telephone conversation with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, stressing that the two sides should maintain the strategic consensuses reached by their leaders. * As COVID-19 transmission rates seemingly decline across the European Region, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge expressed health concerns over "long-COVID" or "post-COVID" symptoms at a virtual press conference on Thursday. * Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in Armenia in a telephone conversation with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday, the Kremlin said. * The Pentagon confirmed on Thursday that the US military had conducted airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria. The Pentagon called the operation a "proportionate military response" carried out after consultations with coalition partners. * China approved two more vaccines for public use, raising the number of domestically produced vaccines that can be used in China to four. * Japan on Friday is preparing to lift the state of emergency over COVID-19 for five prefectures where the situation has improved, although the Greater Tokyo metropolitan area will likely be kept under the emergency period for the time being, according to government sources. * The Department of Health (DOH) of the Philippines reported on Friday 2,651 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily increase since Oct. 17 last year, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 571,327. * Leaders of the European Union (EU) called for an accelerated production and delivery of COVID-19 …
