Here are today’s leading news stories:

COVID-19 Updates

-- Nearly 37,500 students at local schools in Ho Chi Minh City were infected with COVID-19 last week, up from 19,500 cases a week earlier, the municipal Department of Health stated at a teleconference on Wednesday.

-- Southern Long An Province has become the first locality in Vietnam to allow COVID-19 patients and their direct contacts to work normally on a voluntary basis, according to a document issued by the provincial administration on Wednesday.

Society

-- Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have agreed to change the names of Thu Thiem 1, Thu Thiem 2, Thu Thiem 3, Thu Thiem 4 Bridges to Thu Thiem, Bason, Thu Ngu, and Ben Nghe, respectively.

-- The director of Lach Hoi fishing port, the largest of its kind in north-central Thanh Hoa Province, has been suspended from work for gambling, a source from the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said on Wednesday.

-- Police apprehended 28 suspects who participated in illegal street racing throughout Ho Chi Minh City and neighboring Dong Nai and Binh Duong Provinces on Wednesday. Among them, five tested positive for COVID-19.

-- A truck was caught carrying nearly 1.6 metric tons of rotten suckling pigs along a street in Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday. The driver said he had transported the pigs from central Quang Ngai Province.

Business

-- Gasoline prices in Vietnam are expected to be VND5,000-8,000 (US$0.22-0.35)/liter higher than those in the beginning of this year following the upcoming adjustment on Friday.

-- Vietnam’s export-import turnover hit an estimated $108.5 billion in the first two months of 2022, up 13 percent year on year, the Vietnam News Agency quoted the General Statistics Office as saying.

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