Here are today’s leading news stories:

Society

-- Vietnam’s Ministry of Health reported six local COVID-19 infections in the northern province of Hai Duong on Saturday evening, raising the country’s tally to 2,368, with 1,627 recoveries and 35 deaths.

-- Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc attended the launch of a tree-planting festival in the south-central province of Phu Yen on Saturday, which is part of the activities to respond to a program aimed at planting one billion trees initiated by the government chief himself.

-- Only eight locations in Ho Chi Minh City were still fenced off due to COVID-19 as of Saturday night after authorities lifted a lockdown on four places in Thu Duc City, District 3, and Tan Binh District on the same day.

-- Authorities in the southern province of Binh Duong removed lockdown at its final location after nearly 300 people who had direct contact with a COVID-19 patient have tested negative for the novel coronavirus.

-- The body of a 45-year-old elementary school principal was found on Saturday afternoon after he had fallen into Lam River in the north-central province of Nghe An on Thursday evening.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health said on Saturday it had prepared plans for three scenarios in which the city records under 100, 100 to 200, and 200 to 500 COVID-19 cases.

-- A 46-year-old Hanoi man posthumously tested negative for the novel coronavirus after being found dead at a hotel in Tam Dao Town, a popular tourist destination in the northern province of Vinh Phuc, on Saturday morning.

-- A 19-year-old couple was fined VND2 million (US$86) each for failure to wear face masks and leaving home without suitable reasons after they were caught kissing at a public park in the middle of a social distancing drive in northern Hai Duong Province, Vietnam’s current COVID-19 epicenter, on Saturday.

Lifestyle

-- Many people in Ho Chi Minh City began buying snakehead fish early on Sunday morning to prepare for rituals to pay respects to the God of Wealth, an activity that takes place on the tenth day of a lunar year.

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