Here are today’s leading news stories:

Politics

-- Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong visited and extended Lunar New Year (Tet) greetings to the Party organization, administration, and people of northern Bac Ninh Province on Monday, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

COVID-19 Updates

-- The number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Ho Chi Minh City has been decreasing over the past days, Pham Duc Hai, deputy head of the municipal steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and control, said at a press meeting on Monday.

-- Ho Chi Minh City residents are now able to receive their third vaccine doses by coming to any vaccination sites near their places of residence without having to be on a registration list, the city’s Center for Disease Control confirmed on Monday.

Society

-- Police in northern Hai Phong City confirmed on Monday they had arrested the 22-year-old girlfriend of a man, who was previously captured for robbing a local bank of VND3 billion (US$132,500), for concealing a crime.

-- Officers have arrested the former director of Hanoi-based ASA JSC for falsifying records and documents to manipulate prices of seven million ASA shares, valued at VND70 billion ($3 million).

-- A 38-year-old man from the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for attacking two people with a knife in an attempt to steal their belongings as he was hired to paint their house in May last year.

-- The former director of Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi has been sentenced to five years in prison for hiking the price of medical equipment that caused financial damage to over 600 patients.

Business

-- Nami Solar, a subsidiary of Vietnam’s Nami Energy Company, and SK Ecoplant, a member of South Korea’s conglomerate SK Group, sealed a joint venture deal on Monday to pump $200 million into solar energy development in Vietnam, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!