Read what is in the news today:

COVID-19 Updates

-- The Vietnamese Ministry of Health on Thursday morning confirmed 189 new local cases of COVID-19, including 158 in Ho Chi Minh City, raising the national tally to 17,052 infections, with 6,840 recoveries and 81 deaths.

-- Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has approved an additional budget of nearly VND7.7 trillion (US$333.6 million) for the Ministry of Health to purchase 30 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine produced by AstraZeneca Plc and 31 million doses from Pfizer Inc.

-- Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City will collect 600,000 samples for COVID-19 testing in Thu Duc City on Thursday, 460,000 in Binh Thanh District on the same day and Friday, and 150,000 in District 3 from now until July 5.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health on Wednesday evening said that the number of COVID-19 cases in the city in the current outbreak had exceeded 4,000 and was expected to continue increasing rapidly in the coming time.

Society

-- The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the People’s Committee of Da Nang City on Wednesday jointly launched a project with a budget of $14 million to promote deployment of advanced and distributed energy solutions in urban areas in the central Vietnamese city and Ho Chi Minh City.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Procuracy on Thursday evening said the sudden passing of a pharmacist working at Cho Ray Hospital on June 25 was due to pulmonary edema, but emphasized that it was not the final conclusion about her cause of death. The hospital leaders, meanwhile, said they had no comment on the link between the incident and the deceased’s previous COVID-19 vaccination and will wait for an official announcement from the health ministry.

-- Vietnamese netizens have hailed a cyclist for timely stopping his bike to successfully catch a baby falling to the sidewalk from the second floor of a house on Tran Quang Khai Street in Nam Dinh City, located in northern Nam Dinh Province, on Tuesday.

-- The Ministry of Transport has reported to the prime minister that site clearance for the Long Thanh International Airport project in southern Dong Nai Province has been behind schedule.

-- The government is planning to provide a COVID-19 support package of up to VND26 trillion ($1.13 billion) benefiting directly and severely affected people, Minister of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Wednesday.

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