What you need to know in Vietnam today:

Politics

-- State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc handed over a decision on Thursday to Colonel General Nguyen Tan Cuong, Deputy Minister of National Defense, to appoint him as Chief of the General Staff of the People's Army of Vietnam.

COVID-19 Updates

-- Vietnam's caseload reached 8,115 patients on Friday morning, when the Ministry of Health announced 52 new local cases, including 35 in Bac Giang Province, 14 in Bac Ninh Province, two in Hanoi, and one in Thai Binh Province. Recoveries and deaths remain at 3,085 and 49, respectively.

-- Ho Chi Minh City detected 11 suspected coronavirus cases on Friday morning, including two at FV Hospital in District 7, the municipal Center for Disease Control said.

-- Hanoi isolated on Thursday evening an apartment compound of 500 households over a coronavirus-positive patient who had returned from Ho Chi Minh City, where the virus has spread quickly and widely in recent times.

-- Vietnam expects to receive 170 million COVID-19 vaccine doses this year, Deputy Minister of Health Truong Quoc Cuong claimed on Thursday.

Society

-- It will rain heavily in northern Vietnam on Friday while the central part will likely confront a heatwave until mid-June, according to the national weather forecaster.    

-- Ho Chi Minh City hospitals are suffering a dearth of blood amid the complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, the municipal People's Committee said in a document on Thursday, calling for blood donations.

-- Two children drowned after falling into a lake in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai on Thursday, according to local authorities. They were flying kites along the lake when the accident happened.

Business

-- IPP Air Cargo Joint Stock Company, whose chairman is Johnathan Hanh Nguyen, has asked the Ministry of Planning and Investment and other ministries for permission to found IPP Air Cargo, specializing in transporting air freight. 

Sports

-- Hosts the UAE beat Malaysia 4-0 while Thailand were held by Indonesia to a 2-2 draw in their FIFA World Cup qualifiers early on Friday. Vietnam are leading Group G, earning 11 points from five matches, followed by the UAE, Thailand, and Malaysia with nine points each.

World News

-- On Thursday, the Biden administration announced a framework for sharing at least 80 million U.S. vaccine doses globally by the end of June and the plan for the first 25 million doses, including seven million to India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Maldives, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, and the Pacific Islands, according to a fact sheet unveiled on the White House website.

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