Read what is in the news today:

Society

-- Vietnam is drafting a decree on monitoring assets owned by senior officials in government-run agencies, organizations and units by making it compulsory for such officials to declare any possession worth from VND50 million (US$2,150) and severely punishing those who fail to do so truthfully.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital will put into use a modern PET/CT scanner capable of screening up to 30 patients daily from Tuesday, becoming one of only four hospitals in the southern metropolis equipped with the machine. The other three are 115 People’s Hospital, 175 Military Hospital, and Cho Ray Hospital.

-- Northern Vietnam will continue to experience a cold front early this week with the lowest temperature in Hanoi falling between 12 and 15 degrees Celsius, while that of southern Vietnam will be 22-25 degrees Celsius, according to the National Hydro-meteorological Forecasting Center.

-- Although Vietnam has not closed its southwestern border with Cambodia in light of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic, more measures are in place to monitor people going through international border gates along the border to prevent the disease’s spread, a border control officer in the Mekong Delta province of Long An told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Sunday.

-- Over 190 residents in Son Loi - a commune of 10,600 people in the northern province of Vinh Phuc where six out of Vietnam’s 16 confirmed COVID-19 patients reside - have remained outside of the commune as of Monday morning, five days after authorities sealed off the entire commune to prevent the viral contagion.

-- The health department of Da Nang has said it would “draw experience” from an incident where a 28-year-old Vietnamese woman reported undergoing no quarantine measure upon entering the city this month after having been to China within the previous 14 days. She has tested negative for the novel coronavirus.

-- Former Ho Chi Minh City Party chief Dinh La Thang is facing another criminal charge of violating regulations on construction works, causing serious consequences at the Petrochemical and Bio-Fuel JSC (PVB), a subsidiary of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), where he was chairman from 2005 to 2008.

Business

--  Vietnam’s Bamboo Airways has announced that it is launching several new routes between Hanoi and international destinations including Prague in the Czech Republic, Incheon in South Korea, and Kaohsiung in Taiwan in February as part of its plan to develop a network of 25 foreign routes this year.

World News

-- Over 71,000 people have been infected with the novel coronavirus and 1,775 killed globally as of Monday morning, according to the South China Morning Post.