Monday, 20:49, 08/02/2021
The Vietnam Red Cross Society (VRC) spent a total of VND4.8 trillion (US$209.6 million) on humanitarian activities in 2020, a 10% increase compared to 2019.
Tet gifts presented to Van Kieu ethnic minorities - a humanitarian activity of the Vietnam Red Cross Society
The funds were mobilised from all resources, from organisations and individuals inside and outside of the country to international friends, said Tran Quoc Hung, Vice President of the VRC Central Committee in an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency.
Its humanitarian activities last year primarily targeted those affected by COVID-19 and natural disasters in the central region.
When the pandemic first broke out in Vietnam, the VRC stepped up dissemination efforts to raise awareness about disease prevention and control measures, and mobilised resources to support medical workers and volunteers on the frontlines of the fight as well as people living in locked-down areas.
Seven COVID-19 precautions for schools
Jesusegun Alagbe
Shortly before schools reopened in many states in the country and across the world generally, there were concerns about how safe schools were for pupils during the pandemic.
However, health organisations such as the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States said that so far schools maintain protocols such as social distancing and mask-wearing, in-person learning would be safe and the spread of COVID-19 prevented.
Several recent studies in the US and elsewhere have reached similar conclusions, including a study in the Journal of the American Academy of Paediatrics – stating that there is little evidence that schools can contribute significantly to COVID-19 community transmission.
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Migrants are in danger of becoming an afterthought in the international effort to vaccinate against Covid, with UN agencies fearing many will be too scared of authorities to accept a shot.
There are also concerns around compiling data on refugees and migrants, many of whom are reluctant to engage with officials due to a lack of trust, the agencies said.
Dr Jaime Calderon, the senior migration health adviser at the International Organisation for Migration’s regional office in Vienna, says governments must take steps to ensure refugees and migrants are not left behind, and go beyond simply procuring adequate vaccine doses.
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The UK government has been urged to start sharing its vaccine supplies with the world’s poorest countries after new analysis revealed that these nations have so far administered just 0.1 per cent of all doses globally.
More than 120 million jabs have been rolled out to date, yet 70 per cent of these have been administered in the 50 richest countries in the world, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
In contrast, only 0.1 per cent of vaccine doses have been administered in the world’s 50 poorest countries, the IFRC said.