Vietnam opens 15th National Assembly at height of Covid epidemic

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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, July 20 (EFE) .- Vietnam on Tuesday opened the first session of its 15th National Assembly as authorities in Hanoi fight to control the worst wave of Covid-19 in the country since start of the pandemic.

Huong Dinh Hue, the new chairman of the assembly, pointed out in his opening speech that the session was held against the backdrop of the complications of the epidemic in the country, after 4,195 new infections were recorded on Monday. , and 80 deaths have occurred in the past 10 days.

This first period of sessions will run until July 31, shortened by five days due to the epidemic, and will serve mainly for MPs to confirm their positions in various government agencies.

Although Vietnam is a one-party regime, it holds parliamentary elections every five years to elect members of the National Assembly, which also includes independent candidates.

The opening session began, according to local media, with a meeting of 17 of 499 MPs to discuss measures to help quell the current wave of Covid-19, which mainly affects the south of the country and especially its largest city, Ho Chi Minh. City, with 13 million inhabitants in its metropolitan area.

Vietnam, which in 2020 barely recorded 1,500 Covid-19 infections, has one of the slowest vaccination rates in Asia, with 4.3 million people having received a dose and only 310,000 fully immunized out of a population of over 97 million.

Health officials said on Tuesday that they had concluded technology transfer agreements allowing Vietnam to produce vaccines from the United States and Russia, although they did not specify the names of the pharmaceutical companies.

Vietnam has so far secured a supply of 105 million doses, which it expects to receive by the end of the year or early 2022, while a locally produced vaccine has passed its third phase of testing and will start mass production in September. EFE

esj / tw


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