World

1.5 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses arrived in HCMC Thursday as the last batch of a commercial contract with Vietnam Vaccine JSC (VNVC). With the arrival, the 30-million dose contract between AstraZeneca and VNVC has been completed after nearly 10 months. Another contract signed between the two companies in November would …

Vietnam is accepting vaccine passports from 78 countries and territories, with the addition of six more since October; and it is part of a similar list in Australia. “Vietnam has temporarily recognized vaccination certificates from 78 countries and territories,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang confirmed at a press …

A 17-year-old girl in the central province of Quang Tri died Thursday, becoming the 5th child to have died in Vietnam following Covid-19 vaccination. The 12th grader died at the Quang Tri General Hospital following a week in intensive care, the provincial Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control said …

Vietnam on Thursday recorded 15,300 local Covid-19 cases, the highest daily infection tally in nearly three months. The number of infections in the new wave so far is 1,361,198. The three localities with the highest numbers of infection in the day are Ho Chi Minh City with 1,453 cases, Tay …

HCMC Covid-19 Resuscitation Hospital, the city’s largest ICU, is expected to add 300 beds with the number of severe patients rising. The hospital, which specializes in treating Covid-19 patients reliant on intensive care, has recently received at least 30-35 patients daily, its deputy head Tran Thanh Linh said Wednesday. Its …

Hanoi can only go ahead with its plan to ban motorbikes by 2025 if it can rapidly create infrastructure for public transport, experts have said. The Hanoi People’s Committee plans to reduce congestion by banning motorcycles in core districts in 2025, five years earlier than according to a previous plan …

China’s drug authority has granted emergency approval for the country’s first specialized treatment against Covid-19, found in clinical trials to significantly reduce hospitalizations and deaths among high-risk patients. The move comes as regulators around the world give the green light to treatments — particularly for high-risk groups — amid worries …

Chef Ilhani used to serve up Japanese cuisine to holidaymakers every night, now he makes just $3 a day selling fried snacks on the near empty streets of once bustling Gili Trawangan. The coronavirus pandemic has shuttered almost all the resorts and restaurants across Indonesia’s Gili Islands, famed for their …

Three doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine appear effective against the Omicron variant, a lab test indicated — encouraging news, even as Denmark and Britain announced new restrictions to stem surging caseloads. In preliminary results published on Wednesday, the US and German companies behind one of the world’s foremost shots …

Canada joined Australia, Britain and the United States in a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing on Wednesday, with China calling the boycotts “political posturing” and a smear campaign. The United States was the first to announce the boycott this week, saying on Monday that its government officials …