Coronavirus Asia: outbreak shortens Vietnam’s Communist Party congress; Japan to extend state of emergency

Vietnam reported 34 new Covid-19 infections on Saturday as it approved the AstraZeneca vaccine and announced the early end of its five-yearly congress

Japan is ready to announce that a state of emergency in some prefects will continue from February 7, and Taiwan reported its first Covid-19 death since May

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Medical workers in protective suits stand outside a quarantined building amid the coronavirus outbreak in Hanoi. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:21pm, 30 Jan 2021Updated: 9:21pm, 30 Jan 2021

Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party on Saturday said it would cut short a key five-yearly congress as it battled its biggest flare-up yet of Covid-19. The congress will end on Monday, a day earlier than previously scheduled, state media reported.

The new outbreak, in a country of some 98 million people that has been highly successful in curbing the spread of the pandemic, began on Thursday and has spread to Hanoi, where the party is holding its five-yearly congress to pick a new leadership.

Thanks to targeted mass testing and a centralised quarantine programme, Vietnam has recorded just 1,739 cases since the disease was detected a year ago, including 873 locally transmitted infections, according to official data.

Authorities rushed to test tens of thousands after the health ministry reported two locally transmitted cases on Thursday, one of whom was exposed to a person who had tested positive in Japan for the more contagious B.1.1.7 UK variant.

Most of the new cases were in the northern province of Hai Duong, where 2,340 factory workers have been isolated after one employee came into contact with the person who tested positive for the disease upon arrival in Japan in mid-January.

The health ministry reported 32 new infections in Hai Duong, and two in neighbouring Quang Ninh province on Saturday, bringing the number of fresh cases in the current outbreak to 180.