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Daisy Nguyen

Daisy Nguyen

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Life

Hanoi plans to open another pedestrian street

by Daisy Nguyen

Hanoi’s authorities plan to open another pedestrian street around Thien Quang Lake in Hai Ba Trung District.

At a meeting with Hai Ba Trung District’s authorities on Wednesdays, the municipal Party Secretary Vuong Dinh Hue agreed the district’s proposal on the establishment of a pedestrian street around Thien Quang Lake to help develop the local tourism sector.

The walking area, which includes part of Tran Nhan Tong Street, will be linked to Thong Nhat Park.

Hanoi Party Secretary Vuong Dinh Hue said that the idea should be carried out soon to help spur the night-time economy as well as improve the urban environment.

According to the official, the district also should tighten control over old apartment buildings to timely detect possible risks for local residents.

To date, Hoan Kiem and Tay Ho districts in Hanoi have pedestrian zones. In Hoan Kiem, the pedestrian area covers around 20 streets near Hoan Kiem Lake. Meanwhile, in Tay Ho, it is Trinh Cong Son Street which is around one kilometre.

Earlier, Thanh Xuan District planned to pedestrianise Nguyen Quy Duc Street, however, this work has yet to be completed so far.

This article was originally published in Dtinews

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Life

Vietnamese official filmed slapping traffic policeman after being pulled over for drunk driving

by Daisy Nguyen

A population and family planning official from the northern Vietnamese province of Tuyen Quang has been caught on camera slapping a traffic police officer after being pulled over for drunk driving.

The traffic police division in Tuyen Quang Province confirmed on Wednesday that it had imposed a VND3 million (US$130) fine upon Lai Quoc Dat, head of the provincial Department of Population and Family Planning, for obstruction.

The agency will also request the province’s Department of Public Security to fine Dat VND35 million ($1,520) and revoke his driver’s license for 23 months for driving an automobile under the influence of alcohol.

At around 2:00 pm on January 11, Dat was driving his car at high speed and showing signs of drunk driving.

Local residents chased after him to film the violation and report the incident to police.

A team of traffic police officers arrived at the scene and pulled over Dat’s automobile before asking him to follow them to the police station to have his breath alcohol concentration measured.

Dat refused to cooperate and wound up slapping one of the officers before grabbing him by the shirt and insulting him.

The entire incident was filmed by eyewitnesses.

The official was eventually escorted to the police station where a test showed that his alcohol concentration was at 0.4 milligrams per liter of breath.

According to current regulations, car drivers must have a blood alcohol level of zero.

This article was originally published in Tuoitrenews

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Life

10 university students volunteer for second Vietnam Covid-19 vaccine trial

by Daisy Nguyen

10 university students signed up Thursday to be vaccinated with Covivac in its first stage of human trials in February.

Covivac, produced by the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals, is the second Vietnamese-made vaccine to be tested on humans after receiving approval from the Health Ministry. The first was Nanocovax of Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC that had entered trials last month.

On Thursday morning, the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi and Hanoi Medical University officially began recruiting for the first stage of trials that would require 120 volunteers aged 18-59 and without underlying health conditions, infectious diseases or allergies.

The first volunteers are students from the university who registered for participation after consultation with medical staff.

Hien, 27, a resident, decided to enroll in the human trial after learning about the procedure and potential risks of being vaccinated.

“So far, the side effects of Covid-19 vaccines are usually mild and not dangerous, so I don’t feel worried. Besides, I am a medic, at high risk of being infected with the coronavirus. If I undergo the vaccine trial, I will develop antibodies against the virus,” she said.

Duong, 19, a second-year student, feels a little sad since she has flu and may not be eligible for the trial. But she did her research very carefully, considering applying for a second phase of the clinical trial.

The volunteers will be divided into four groups, with each receiving four different vaccine dosages, while another group is injected with a placebo.

Each group would receive two intramuscular injections of the vaccine, with an interval of 28 days.

Nguyen Ngo Quang, deputy head of the Administration of Science, Technology and Training under the health ministry, thanked volunteers for registering for the human clinical trials, which play an important part in the research and development of Covid-19 vaccines.

Trials for Nanocovax began with 60 volunteers split into three groups to be given two doses of 25 micrograms, 50 micrograms and 75 micrograms almost a month apart.

Some have received the second shot, which has proven safe and immunogenic and produces an immune response four to five times higher than the first, Vietnam Military Medical University stated.

Two other vaccines are under development by Vaccine and Biological Production Company No. 1 and the Center for Research and Production of Vaccines and Biologicals.

The ministry is in talks with British Covid-19 vaccine developers AstraZeneca and Oxford University to buy 30 million doses of their product. It is also seeking to buy from the U.S. (Pfizer), Russia (Sputnik V) and China.

This article was originally published in Vnexpress

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Life

Third homegrown COVID-19 vaccine to begin human trials in March

by Daisy Nguyen

A third COVID-19 vaccine developed by Vietnam is scheduled to be tested on humans at the end of March, the Ministry of Health said on January 19.

The vaccine is developed by Vaccine and Biological Production No. 1 (VABIOTECH). It is one of the four companies that are developing COVID-19 vaccines in Vietnam, along with the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals (IVAC), the Centre for Research and Production of Vaccines and Biologicals (POLYVAC), and Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology (NANOGEN).

Nanocovax by NANOGEN is Vietnam’s first candidate vaccine against the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 to reach the human trial stage.

The highest dose, 75mcg, of Nanocovax was given to three volunteers in Hanoi on January 12.

The Nha Trang-based IVAC has also been authorised to carry out human clinical tests for its Covivac.

According to Associate Professor Dr Chu Van Men, Director of the Military Medical University’s Centre for Clinical Trials and Bioequivalence, Vietnam expects to collect all necessary data on clinical testing by the end of 2021 before it can consider mass vaccination.

This article was originally published in VNA

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Life

More border jumpers from Laos detected in Thanh Hoa

by Daisy Nguyen

Border guards in the northern central province of Thanh Hoa have found five people illegally entering Vietnam from Laos.

The incident occurred at around 3:30 pm on January 17 in the area bordering Pieng Mon Rea, Muong Lat Town.

The five are Vietnamese who are from Duc Thanh Commune in the central province of Nghe An’s Yen Thanh District.

According to the provincial border force, they will be sent to Muong Lat District’s health centre for quarantine for Covid-19 prevention as regulated.

Meanwhile, authorities of the central province of Nghe An on January 18 also caught seven men illegally entering Vietnam from Laos. The men, who are workers of a hydropower project in Laos, are all from Que Phong and Nghia Dan districts in Nghe An.

Last week, a local woman was fined VND5 million (USD217.39) for her unlawful entry into Vietnam from Laos.

Earlier, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long warned that the rising number of illegal entrants is posing a big threat to Vietnam’s anti-Covid-19 fight.

By the end of November last year, more than 20,000 people had illegally entered the country.

Vietnam closed the doors to foreign nationals on March 22 and suspended international flights on March 25, except for flights to transport Vietnamese nationals in special cases and foreigners who have diplomatic or official passports or are experts or high-skilled workers to enter the country at present.

This article was originally published in Dtinews

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Finance

Insurance industry forecast to gain double-digit growth in 2021

by Daisy Nguyen

The insurance industry is forecast to continue gaining double-digit growth this year thanks to new bancassurance contracts signed late last year and the recovery of the economy.

Under a recent report on the insurance industry, Saigon Securities Incorporation (SSI)’s experts said growth of the premium revenue for life and non-life insurance segments in 2021 would be 22 per cent and 10-12 per cent, respectively, against last year.

In 2021, insurance companies can reach a larger group of potential customers thanks to new exclusive bancassurance contracts signed last year and the demand for life insurance products remains good, according to the report.

Experts also predict that if the COVID-19 pandemic is controlled and social distancing lifted, insurers can recover their promotion activities such as meetings and customer conferences as before.

Economic recovery will also contribute to boosting non-life insurance. SSI expects GDP growth to return to 6.5 per cent in 2021 as economic activity recovers. As a result, insurance in cargo, aviation and travel will be able to achieve levels as high as they reached before the pandemic.

However, the insurance industry would still have to encounter risks this year including low interest rates and increasing re-insurance costs, the experts said.

The low interest rate environment, which has lasted for a long time, will a reduction in profits as most of the insurers’ investment portfolios are bank deposits and Government bonds.

In addition, if the Government bond yields drop, profits will be negatively affected due to higher life insurance reserves.

As for increasing reinsurance costs, in recent years, since Vietnamese insurance companies have suffered big losses, particularly in asset insurance, international reinsurers have increased the reinsurance prices. This trend is forecast to continue in medium- and long-term, affecting the capacity of non-life insurance, according to the SSI’s report.

Last year, aviation, travel and freight insurance which accounted for about 6 per cent of the total non-life insurance premium revenue, was heavily affected by COVID-19.

But the demand for health and life insurance products has recovered fairly well after a period of social distancing. The revenue of the segment mainly dropped in the social distancing period in March and April 2020, but then has recovered strongly. According to the Association of Vietnam Insurance, the health and life insurance premium revenue in the first three quarters of 2020 increased by 25.6 per cent and 21.2 per cent, respectively, against the same period of the previous year.

SSI’s report said that among the top 10 leading non-life insurers, only BVH and PVI recorded market share decline in nine months of 2020, while among the top 10 leading life insurers, six including Manulife, AIA, Generali, MB Ageas, FWD and AVIVA succeeded in increasing their market share.

Most notably, at the end of 2020, Manulife completed the acquisition of AVIVA Vietnam. This helps the company’s life insurance market share increased to about 18.5 per cent, ranked behind Prudential with 18.8 per cent.

This article was originally published in VNS

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Life

Việt Nam named among countries with highest cancer fatality rates worldwide

by Daisy Nguyen

Việt Nam has been named among the countries worldwide with the highest rate of cancer fatalities and new cancer cases, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Statistics compiled by the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR), last year saw Việt Nam climb seven places to rank 92th out of 185 surveyed countries in terms of cancer rates.

This comes following a period when number of cancer patients rose, with figure reaching 165,000 cases in 2018 compared to just 68,000 back in 2000, and 126,000 in 2010.

Most notably, the five most common kinds of cancer typically occur in the lung, liver, stomach, rectum, and breast.

According to the IARC, the cancer rate in developed countries remains higher compared to developing ones.

The developed countries recording the highest numbers of cancer cases include Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the United States, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, France, and Hungary.

In relation to Asia, Japan took the lead for the highest cancer rates, followed by the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and China.

The top five Southeast Asian nations with the highest cancer rates were Singapore, Brunei, Laos, Thailand, and the Philippines.

Việt Nam ranked 16th in Asia and sixth in Southeast Asia, with a cancer ratio rate of 159.7 for every 100,000 people.

This article was originally published in VNS

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Life

2nd Made-in-Vietnam Covid vaccine to start human trials next month

by Daisy Nguyen

A Covid-19 vaccine produced by the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals on Tuesday received approval from the Ministry of Health for human trials.

Covivac will be the second Vietnamese-made vaccine to be tested on humans after the Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC began trials last December of its Nanocovax.

The first phase of the trials will require 120 volunteers aged 18-59 and without underlying health conditions, infectious diseases or allergies, the health ministry said.

The institute, which belongs to the ministry, would coordinate with the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi and the Hanoi Medical University to begin recruiting volunteers and prepare equipment and facilities for the trials, Duong Huu Thai, its head, said.

The volunteers would receive the first shot after the Lunar New Year in mid-February.

The second phase is expected to begin in April and the third in July or August.

If things go well, the institute will start mass production of this vaccine and supply six million doses, Thai said.

Trials for Nanocovax began with 60 volunteers split into three groups to be given two doses of 25 mcg, 50 mcg and 75 mcg almost a month apart.

Some have got the second shot, and it has proven safe and immunogenic and produces an immune response four to five times higher than the first, the Vietnam Military Medical University said.

Two other vaccines are under development by the Vaccine and Biological Production Company No. 1 and the Center for Research and Production of Vaccines and Biologicals.

The ministry is in talks with British Covid-19 vaccine developers AstraZeneca and Oxford University to buy 30 million doses. It is also seeking to buy from the U.S. (Pfizer), Russia (Sputnik V) and China.

This article was originally published in Vnexpress

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Life

Bus crushes pedestrian to death in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City

by Daisy Nguyen

A pedestrian died on Wednesday after a bus ran over her in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.

At 8:30 am on Tuesday, bus No. 150 was traveling on Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street from the Dinh Tien Hoang Street direction to Hai Ba Trung Street in District 1, according to authorities’ report.

The bus slammed into a 55-year-old woman who was crossing the street when it was about 50 meters away from the Nguyen Dinh Chieu-Mac Dinh Chi intersection in Da Kao Ward, District 1.

The vehicle ran over the woman and killed her instantly at a spot roughly five meters from a bus stop.

Police officers arrived at the scene shortly after being informed of the crash.

Bus No. 150 travels from Cho Lon Bus Terminal in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City to Tan Van T-Junction in neighboring Binh Duong Province and vice versa.

The bus makes 400 journeys, lasting about 80 minutes each, on the 30.9km route every day from 04:30 am to 9:00 pm.

This article was originally published in Tuoitrenews

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Enterprise

Vietnam’s e-wallet Gpay completed Series A investment with KB Financial Group

by Daisy Nguyen

E-wallet firm Gpay, a member company of G-Group Technology Corporation, announced it had completed its Series A investment with the participation of KB Fina, a joint venture between G-Group and South Korean KB Financial Group, in Hanoi on Tuesday.

According to the announcement, KB Financial Group invested VND425 billion (US$18.4 million) in Gpay through KB Securities, its representative in Vietnam.

With the announcement ceremony on Tuesday, the Gpay e-wallet was officially launched.

Gpay is licensed by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to provide intermediary payment services.

Given a supportive ecosystem from G-Group with nearly 30 million users across financial services, financial technology, and social networking platforms, Gpay aims to provide a comprehensive range of payment and financial services to five million users by 2023, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

“The investment will be used to grow users based on the existing ecosystem, develop strategic technology solutions and people investment with the mission to bring convenience, security and happiness for Vietnamese people by providing platforms in financial services on mobile devices,” the Vietnam News Agency quoted Nguyen Thuan Chat, co-founder and CEO of Gpay, as saying.

KB Fina had received an investment of VND300 billion ($12.93 million) from KB Financial Group, which is a leading financial institution specializing in providing a wide range of financial products and services.

With a large customer base accounting for 66 percent of the South Korean population and experience in the market for 12 consecutive years, KB has total assets of up to $520 billion.

G-Group is growing an ecosystem of nearly 30 million users across financial services, financial technology, intermediary payment, e-wallets, social networks, online games, digital media platforms, cybersecurity, and high-tech R&D.

According to the SBV’s statistics, 39 companies in Vietnam that are not banks had been licensed to provide intermediary payment services as of October 15, 2020.

This article was originally published in Tuoitrenews

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Life

Vietnamese man tests positive for Covid-19 after returning from the US

by Daisy Nguyen

A Vietnamese man who recently returned from the US has tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, raising the total number of Covid-19 patients in the country to 1,540, the Ministry of Health reported on Tuesday evening.

According to the ministry’s report, the 20-year-old man returned from the US and transited in South Korea before landing at Danang International Airport on January 13.

He was sent to a local quarantine area upon arrival and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on January 17.

The patient is now being treated at the Danang Lung Hospital.

Earlier, four other people who boarded the same flight with him had also been infected with the virus.

With this new infection case, the number of imported Covid-19 patients in Vietnam has increased to 846.

As of 6 pm on January 19, a total of 1,402 Covid-19 patients had recovered and been discharged from hospital. There have been 35 deaths, most of them being the elderly with serious underlying diseases.

At present, over 18,000 people who had close contact with Covid-19 patients or returned from virus-hit areas are being monitored at hospitals, quarantine facilities, and at home.

This article was originally published in Dtinews

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Life

Vietravel Airlines to start flying next Monday

by Daisy Nguyen

Vietravel Airlines is scheduled to make its maiden flight on January 25, and began ticket sales on Tuesday, its CEO, Vu Duc Bien, said.

Vietnam’s newest carrier will operate one or two flights a day each from HCMC and Hanoi to major tourist destinations like Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, Da Nang, and Hue.

It has a fleet of two Airbus A321CEO aircraft and a third is expected to arrive on January 21 to meet the increased travel demand during the Lunar New Year (Tet) in mid-February.

The carrier hopes to break even in its second year of operations.

Vietravel Airlines has hired some 200 pilots and flight attendants, and is looking to expand its fleet to 30 to prepare for international operations, flying to Southeast Asia, especially Thailand, the Middle East and Northeast Asia, markets that Vietravel, the travel company that owns it, serves.

It is the sixth carrier in what is a fiercely competitive aviation market after Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet, Jetstar Pacific, Vietnam Air Services Company, and Bamboo Airways.

This article was originally published in Vnexpress

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Life

Last illegal entrant from coronavirus-infected group found

by Daisy Nguyen

The last of the nine people who entered Vietnam illegally last week, some with Covid-19, and their smuggler have been tracked down.

The illegal entrant, a woman living in an apartment in HCMC’s Tan Phu District, was found by city authorities on Thursday night. She tested negative for the novel coronavirus.

The woman and 23 people who were in close contact with her have been quarantined, but all have tested negative, Nguyen Tri Dung, director of the HCMC Center for Disease Control, said.

Also on Thursday night Phan Thanh Hung, 39, who is suspected to run a human smuggling gang operating between Cambodia and Vietnam, was arrested while hiding in Binh Duong Province, said Lam Thanh Sol, deputy director of An Giang Province’s Police Department.

The nine, all Vietnamese nationals, illegally crossed into An Giang from Cambodia on December 24.

The whole thing came to light after the mother of one of them, a 32-year-old man, dubbed ‘patient 1440,’ reported him to the authorities for quarantining when he visited her in Vinh Long Province.

Of the nine, four have tested positive for the virus and four others are in quarantine after reporting to authorities or being tracked down.

They had traveled from Myanmar to Thailand by truck on December 15 and stayed there until leaving for Cambodia on December 23. They paid people smugglers to sneak across borders to avoid quarantining.

“After knowing that the police were hunting for those who enabled “patient 1440″ to illegally enter [the country], Hung escaped to Binh Duong,” Sol said, adding that he has been quarantined and tested.

Once his quarantine period is over, authorities will investigate his activities further.

Phan Thanh Hung, 39, is arrested in An Giang Province as a suspected mastermind of a human smuggling ring from Cambodia in to Vietnam, December 31, 2020. Photo courtesy of the police.
Phan Thanh Hung, 39, is arrested in An Giang Province as a suspected mastermind of a human smuggling ring from Cambodia in to Vietnam, December 31, 2020. Photo courtesy of the police.

Four of his henchmen have also been identified by the police.

Vietnam has had 1,465 Covid-19 cases so far, 102 still active and 35 people dead.

No local transmission has been recorded for around a month.

This article was originally published in Vnexpress

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Life

Vietnam reports 343 illegal entrances within three days

by Daisy Nguyen

Local border authority has reported hundreds of illegal attempts to enter Vietnam over the last few days from the neighboring countries of Cambodia and China.

By 6:00 pm Wednesday, 104 attempts of border jumping into Vietnam had been documented on the daily count, said the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control and the Border Guard High Command.

Out of the total, 88 cases of illegal entrance, one of whom is Chinese while the rest are Vietnamese, were found along the Vietnam – China borderline.

The remaining 16 were detected along the Vietnam – Cambodia boundary.

Wednesday’s statistics brought the weekly tally of illegal entrances to Vietnam to 343.

Earlier, reports of Vietnamese communities in Cambodia being targeted by criminal rings, who lured them into taking illegal routes to return to their home country, have emerged.

Addressing this issue, Vu Quang Minh, Vietnamese Ambassador to Cambodia, advised the Vietnamese nationals against “endangering yourself” and “wasting money for illegal smuggling ploys”.

Minh affirmed that all Vietnamese citizens with legal identification papers – passports, ID cards or citizenship cards, will be eligible for entrance to Vietnam after appraisal at border gates.

After the entrance, the entrants would be subject to COVID-19 testing and concentrated quarantine to ensure safety for their families as well as the community.

Since Saturday, the Ministry of Health has confirmed four coronavirus cases among a group of six Vietnamese people who sneaked into Vietnam on December 24 through the Vietnam – Cambodia border to avoid mandatory quarantine applied to anyone arriving from outside the country.

Security along the Vietnamese border has been tightened over the past days to prevent illegal entries and reduce risks of COVID-19 transmission from border jumpers.

The Southeast Asian country has documented 1,465 COVID-19 cases, with 1,325 recoveries and 35 deaths, according to Ministry of Health statistics.

This article was originally published in Tuoitrenews

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Life

School gate collapse kills 4th grader in Vietnam’s Central Highlands

by Daisy Nguyen

A fourth-grade student in Vietnam’s Central Highlands was killed after being crushed by a collapsed gate while playing with his classmates in front of their school.

The accident happened at Le Huu Trac Elementary School in Dak Sin Commune, Dak R’Lap District, Dak Nong Province on Wednesday afternoon, said Nguyen Xuan Vinh, principal of the school.

The victim, a fourth grader at the school, was waiting for his parents with two other classmates at the gate.

The three children took turns swinging on the gate, which eventually tumbled down on one of them.

Eyewitnesses rushed the victim to the hospital for emergency treatment, but he later succumbed to his injuries.

According to an official from the Bureau of Education and Training in Dak R’Lap District, Le Huu Trac Elementary School is quite old and many of the school’s facilities were built when Dak Sin Commune was founded in 1992.

On November 22, a sixth grader in the northern province of Thai Binh was killed after being hit by a collapsed wall while cycling home after school.

Previously, a fifth-grade student was also fatally hit by a collapsed wall in front of an elementary school in the north-central province of Nghe An on September 11.

Earlier the same month, the gate of an elementary school suddenly tumbled, killing three students and injuring three others in the northern Vietnamese province of Lao Cai.

This article was originally published in Tuoitrenews

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