Read what is in the news today.

Society

— Vietnam on Friday confirmed six new COVID-19 cases, including three Belarusian nationals, bringing the patient tally to 1,391, with 1,238 recoveries and 35 virus-related deaths.

— The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has provided a US$600,000 grant in-kind to assist the government of Vietnam in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

— Le Van Su, deputy chairman of the southernmost province of Ca Mau, on Friday requested the provincial police to collaborate with the Border Guard Command to urgently verify a report on a helmsman, who was accused of tying and beating a fisherman before throwing the victim into the sea and hitting a number of other fishermen.

— More than six million people have escaped poverty while two million others have overcome the near-poor threshold in Vietnam in the past four years, Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung said at a virtual conference on Friday morning.

— A medical center of Phu Quoc Island off the southern province of Kien Giang has saved four seamen suffering gas poisoning in a fishing boat’s storage, Dr. Le Cong Linh, the center’s director, said on Friday morning.

— Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long on Friday morning reaffirmed the Prime Minister and the government’s conclusion that there is no need to test the people traveling from Ho Chi Minh City to other localities as the southern metropolis is not a COVID-19 epicenter. 

Business

— Japan eyes Vietnam as an ideal destination for the reformation of its supply chain, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)’s President Kitaoka Shinichi said during Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s reception for him on Friday afternoon.

— China is no longer the largest agricultural importer of Vietnam in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, World Bank’s Senior Agricultural Economist Hardwick Tchale said at the conference of the International Support Group in Hanoi on Friday.

— Indonesian multi-service platform Gojek started increasing rates for GoRide, GoSend and GoFood services in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi from 0:00 Saturday.

Lifestyle

— A heart-shaped art installation next of Hanoi’s iconic Hoan Kiem Lake was urgently dismantled by authorities on Thursday night, even before it is put on an official display, following complaints about its weird appearance.

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