What you need to know today in Vietnam:

Politics

-- The ASEAN Coordinating Council held its 25th meeting in the form of a teleconference on Thursday, chaired by the council’s chairman, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

-- Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc talked on the phone with his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison on Thursday, during which the two heads of government conferred on bilateral and regional cooperation amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Society

-- Vietnam reported no additional cases of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Friday morning, as the national tally still stands at 255. A total of 128 patients have recovered.

-- The People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday night issued an urgent dispatch requiring grassroots-level authorities to beef up measures to enforce social distancing to prevent COVID-19 transmission, as more people are leaving their home for non-essential purposes.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health has prepared a plan to respond to a scenario where up to 500 COVID-19 cases are confirmed in the city.

-- Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Thursday night signed a resolution on a stimulus package worth VND62 trillion (US$2.6 billion) to support people and businesses affected by COVID-19. 

-- The An Giang Center General Hospital, located in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang, has been allowed by the Ministry of Health to carry out COVID-19 tests.

Business

-- Prices of real estate in Ho Chi Minh City, Long An Province, Binh Duong Province, Dong Nai Province are plummeting because of the COVID-19 epidemic, according to a survey by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

World News

-- The novel coronavirus has infected over 1.6 million people and killed more than 95,600 others around the world, according to statistics. More than 355,000 patients have recovered worldwide.

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