Here are today’s leading news stories:

Politics

-- Vietnamese State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc congratulated Antonio Guterres on his reappointment as United Nations Secretary-General for the 2022-26 tenure, and proposed a number of measures to further foster the Vietnam-UN partnership during their phone talks on Saturday, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

COVID-19 Updates

-- The Ministry of Health confirmed 78 local COVID-19 cases, including 46 in Ho Chi Minh City, raising the country’s tally to 12,978, with 5,054 recoveries and 64 deaths.

-- Ho Chi Minh City authorities have decided to shut down all makeshift markets as well as suspend public transport and taxi services in order to curb the serious coronavirus pandemic.

-- The administration in northern Bac Giang Province announced on Saturday that 28 health workers at a COVID-19 treatment facility had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

-- Military units carried out large-scale fumigation at offices, schools, hospitals, and public places across Vinh City in the north-central province of Nghe An on Saturday as the locality recently recorded an increase in local COVID-19 infections.

Society

-- Police in the central city of Da Nang said on Saturday they had arrested a 41-year-old Chinese man after he was booked for staying in Vietnam with an expired visa for the second time since August 2020.

-- A 51-year-old has been fined VND7.5 million (US$324) for having another person replace him at a quarantine center in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong. The man who agreed to help him also faced a similar penalty.

-- Three men and two women have been booked for throwing an eating and drinking party along the sidewalk at Gia Dinh Park in Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City. They now face a combined fine worth up to VND39 million ($1,688).

-- Officers in the central province of Quang Nam said on Saturday they had apprehended many members of a gambling ring whose transactions were worth hundreds of billions of dong (VND100 billion = $4.3 million).

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