What you need to know today in Vietnam:

Politics

-- On Thursday, Germany's frigate Bayern entered the wharf of Nha Rong in Ho Chi Minh City and was welcomed by German Ambassador Dr. Guido Hildner, members of the German Embassy and Consulate General Ho Chi Minh City, as well as representatives of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of External Relations, the Vietnamese Navy, and the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense, according to the Germany Embassy.

Society

-- Police in southern Dong Nai Province said on Thursday that they had arrested two suspects for robbing two children who stayed home alone of an iPad on Monday this week.

-- Ho Chi Minh City recorded five more Omicron infections on Thursday, taking the total to 11, all imported from abroad, according to the municipal Center for Disease Control. 

-- Doctors in Nghe An Province on Wednesday took 25 magnetic toy balls from the abdomen of a 37-month-old baby boy. His family brought him to the hospital over abdominal pain, suspecting he had swallowed magnetic toy balls. 

-- Vietnam can halt or limit medical oxygen exports if domestic demand rises, according to a fiat by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam.  

Business

-- Vietnam recorded 1.4 million people in working age becoming unemployed last year, the General Statistics Office announced at a conference in Hanoi on Thursday.

-- Vietnam's automaker announced on Thursday its plan to go all-electric from the end of this year.

World News

-- "The more infectious Omicron variant of COVID-19 appears to produce less severe disease than the globally dominant Delta strain, but should not be categorised as 'mild'," Reuters quoted World Health Organization (WHO) officials as saying on Thursday.

-- "The efficacy of boosters against COVID-19 is likely to decline over the next few months and people may need another shot in the fall of 2022, Moderna Inc Chief Executive Officer Stephane Bancel said at a Goldman Sachs-organized healthcare conference on Thursday," Reuters reported.

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