Read what is in the news today:

Society

— Vietnam reported nine new community cases of COVID-19 infection on Wednesday morning, bringing the national tally to 1,891 patients, with 1,461 recoveries and 35 virus-related deaths.

— Seventy-five students and ten teachers at Bach Dang Kindergarten in Kinh Mon Town, northern Hai Duong Province have been quarantined at the campus after a four-year-old student caught COVID-19.

— The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has directed the Vietnamese Embassy in Myanmar to keep a close watch on the situation in the host country, while staying in close contact with local agencies, regularly updating on local information, and standing ready to roll out measures to protect Vietnamese citizens if necessary.

— The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam has required airlines to accept ticket returns and refund passengers affected by new COVID-19 outbreaks, even for tickets with ‘no change, no refund’ conditions.

— To Tu Ha, acting director of Noi Bai International Airport, on Tuesday afternoon refuted a rumor going viral on the Internet in recent days that the airdrome would be temporarily shut down for COVID-19 prevention and control.

— Vuong Dinh Hue, secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee, at a municipal meeting on COVID-19 prevention and control on Tuesday afternoon requested leaders of the municipal People’s Committee to direct local health authorities to focus on planning, allocating budgets, and mobilizing legal resources to buy a COVID-19 vaccine for all people in the Vietnamese capital city. 

Business

— The country’s tax revenue in January was estimated at VND134 trillion (US$5.8 billion), down 18.8 percent from the same period last year, according to the General Department of Taxation.

— The Airports Corporation of Vietnam said it posted an 80-percent slump in pre-tax profit in 2020, which stood at around VND2.09 trillion ($90.67 million), due to travel restrictions induced by COVID-19.

— The Vietnam Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) was 51.3 in January, down from 51.7 in December, signaling a softer improvement in business conditions at the start of 2021, according to the latest survey Nikkei and IHS Markit revealed on Monday.

— Public hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City saw revenues fall 9.6 percent last year to VND28.7 trillion ($1.2 billion) due to the impacts of COVID-19, according to the municipal Department of Health.

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