Society

The General Department of State Reserve held a conference to review work in 2021 and deploy tasks for 2022 on December 29. The national reserve sector issued reserve items worth over VND3.4 trillion ($149 million) this year to support localities facing difficulties from the pandemic and the consequences of flooding.

The monthly income of Vietnam’s poorest group of workers reached VND1.13 million ($49.36) in 2020, an increase of VND151,000 ($6.56) compared to 2019. Meanwhile, the earnings of the group of “high income” workers stood at VND8 million ($350), down VND1.1 million ($48.07) compared to 2019, due to the heavy impact of the pandemic.

The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) has introduced a program targeting an unemployment rate in urban areas of below 4 per cent and in rural areas of below 2 per cent. Among the six groups of tasks within the program are solutions to support the cost of attracting employees back to work. In particular, the Ministry will also propose amending and supplementing the Law on Employment, the Law on Occupational Safety and Hygiene, the Law on Social Insurance, and the Law on Vocational Education.

The Ministry of Health has allocated 300,000 doses of Molnupiravir to localities implementing the Program on the Controlled Use of Molnupiravir for mild cases of Covid-19 in the community.

Businesses in Ho Chi Minh City need to recruit 33,000-42,000 workers before the end of the year, primarily unskilled workers, to complete year-end orders. Ninety-six per cent of businesses, with 230,000 workers, at 17 industrial parks have now restarted operations, and all businesses in the food sector have done so, with capacity ranging from 85-100 per cent.

The DB Investment and Development One Member Company Ltd has sponsored an additional 1.1 million pills for the Ministry of Health’s pilot program on using Molnupiravir to treat F0 Covid-19 patients at home, bringing its total sponsorship to over 2 million pills.