Read what is in the news today:

Society

-- Local authorities in the northern province of Vinh Phuc have set up five more checkpoints around Son Loi Commune of Binh Xuyen District for 24-hour control, as all 10,600 residents in the commune are barred from leaving the affected area for the next 20 days in the latest effort to contain the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic.

-- The Ministry of Industry and Trade on Wednesday launched a website providing information on the fight against COVID-19 at http://hanhdong.moit.gov.vn/.

-- Two elementary school students drowned in a lake in Tam Ky City, located in the central province of Quang Nam, on Wednesday afternoon.

-- Local people in Thanh Binh Commune of Cho Gao District, located in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, have complained about pollution from a fire that has been burning at a nearby one-hectare dump for over two days.

-- The Vietnam General Confederation of Labor has called for a national effort to donate blood due to high demand and short supply of the liquid for transfusion in hospitals after the Lunar New Year holiday.

Business

-- The European Parliament on Wednesday ratified the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA).

-- Enterprises will have their automobile import business licenses temporarily suspended if they import cars which include electronic products and software installed with maps that wrongly display Vietnam’s sovereignty and territory, according to an amended decree newly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Education

-- Students in Ho Chi Minh City and many other localities in Vietnam will come back to school next Monday after a two-week break to avoid the COVID-19 epidemic, the municipal Department of Education and Training and its provincial counterparts said on Wednesday.

World News

-- Nearly 60,100 people have been infected with COVID-19 and 1,363 killed globally as of Thursday morning, according to the South China Morning Post.

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