Read what is in the news today:

COVID-19 Updates

-- All of 89 passengers boarding flight VJ458 from Phu Quoc Island to Hanoi on Monday with two COVID-19 patients from Hai Phong City and Quang Ninh Province have tested negative for the coronavirus, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) of Hanoi announced on Saturday morning.

-- Vietnam reported five new imported COVID-19 cases, including two illegal entries, on Friday evening, raising the national caseload to 2,586, with 2,265 recoveries and 35 virus-related deaths.

-- An additional 1,775 people in 19 Vietnamese provinces and cities got vaccinated against COVID-19 on Friday, bringing the total number of vaccinated people in Vietnam to 44,000, accounting for nearly 0.5 percent of the population, according to the Ministry of Health.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City CDC has requested arrivals from Le Hong Phong Street in Dang Giang Ward in Ngo Quyen District in Hai Phong City and D35 Street in Quarter 4 at Viet - Sing residential area in An Phu Ward in Thuan An City in Binh Duong Province to self-isolate at home and take COVID-19 test according to regulations.

Society

-- Ho Chi Minh City recorded 2,564 cases of Hand, Foot and Mouth disease from January until March 14, up 2.5 times from the same period in 2020, the city’s CDC said on Friday evening.

-- Four high school students and a college student, who was interning at Phan Dang Luu High School in Phu Vang District in central Thua Thien - Hue Province, have been hospitalized after a mini gas cylinder exploded during a cooking contest on Friday morning.

-- Two traffic police officers in Ho Chi Minh City successfully escorted a woman in labor from neighboring Dong Nai Province to the University Medical Center on Friday morning. Both the mother and newborn are healthy.

Business

-- The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has provided a refinanced loan of up to VND4 trillion (US$174 million) at zero interest for Vietnam Airlines, which is struggling against financial hardship caused by COVID-19 pandemic.

World news

-- “Efforts to refloat the giant container ship grounded in the Suez Canal were suspended late on Friday and will be resumed Saturday, three canal sources said,” Reuters reported.

-- “American children’s book author Beverly Cleary, who responded to a young reader’s plea for realistic characters by bringing rare insight and humor to the lives of Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins and the other children who populated her more than 40 books, has died at age 104, publisher HarperCollins said,” Reuters reported.

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