Here are today’s leading news stories:

Politics

-- Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh attended a High-Level Segment of the 46th Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which was held virtually, on Monday.

-- The 53rd session of the 14th NA Standing Committee opened in Hanoi on Monday afternoon and was chaired by Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

Society

-- Vietnam’s Ministry of Health recorded three local COVID-19 infections in the northern province of Hai Duong on Tuesday morning, raising the country’s tally to 2,395, with 1,717 recoveries and 35 deaths.

-- The secretary of the Party Committee in northern Hai Phong City has requested all residents to avoid going outside and leaving their homes after 10:00 pm every day after a new COVID-19 cluster was recently detected in the locality.

-- Only one location remained under lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City as of Monday afternoon, while the metropolis has not recorded any community-based COVID-19 case since February 11.

-- The Ministry of Health has listed 10 groups of individuals including health workers, police and military officers, and people over 65 years old that will be the first to receive COVID-19 vaccination in the country.

-- The Hanoi Department of Health has proposed the purchase of 15 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for citizens over 18 years old.

Business

-- Vietnam’s GDP growth is expected to rebound to seven percent in 2021, driven by a recovery in external demand, a resilient domestic economy, and increased production capacity, according to a preliminary assessment by the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO).

-- Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has recently given in-principle approval to the Quang Trach 2 thermal power plant project in north-central Quang Binh Province. The plant will have a total capacity of 1,200 MW and cost more than VND48 trillion (US$2 billion).

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