B: That’s such good news. After successfully containing the 1st phase of the pandemic earlier this year, Vietnam is entering the peak of the second wave of the epidemic. Vietnam has reported new infections in recent days, but the situation is under control.

A: Localitieswith COVID-19 cases are racing against time to trace the travel history of the patients in order to promptly disinfect areas and quarantine people who had direct contact with the patients. All the efforts aim to prevent the disease spread to other areas.

B: Da Nang, Vietnam’s COVID-19 epicenter, has extended social distancing measures for another two weeks from August 11. Da Nang residents are also being asked to go to the market once every three days to prevent large gatherings.

A: Hanoi has imposed social distancing measures at cafes, restaurants, and pubs from today. Customers will be required to sit one meter apart, while staff will be required to wear masks.

B: All citizens are required to make health declarations when experiencing symptoms of fever, coughing and breathing difficulties and go to the nearest medical establishments for further guidance. Those who have underlying diseases, the elderly and those at high risk of infection are encouraged to not go out unless really necessary. 

People in Dak Lak hang national flags to celebrate  the lifting of social distancing measure in Buon Ma Thuot city and lockdown on some streets.

A: Good news from the Central Highland province of Dak Lak when it lifted social distancing measuring in its capital city Buon Ma Thuot and a lockdown of four streets from August 17. No new COVID-19 cases have been reported in the city for 2 weeks.

B: Fighting COVID-19 is not a task of one locality or a nation. Money and goods, including rice, protective gear, hand sanitiser, and medical face masks from the fund have been delivered to Da Nang and Quang Nam, which are hotspots for the current COVID-19 outbreak. Doctors and health workers from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have come to aid their colleges in Da Nang.

A: Cuba has sent to Vietnam a team of medical experts and thousands of vials of an antiviral drug to assist in the fight against Covid-19. The drug, Interferon alfa-2b, which induces the human body to produce antibodies against the novel coronavirus, were handed over at a ceremony held by the Ministry of National Defense’s department of foreign relations in Hanoi last week.

B: The Cuban medical experts, following their mandatory quarantine upon entry, will travel to Da Nang City and Quang Nam Province, now Vietnam’s Covid-19 hotspots, to help fight the disease.

A: SBSharma of India told us that he visits VOVworld’s website every day for updated news. He suggested that VOV present some news in graphical form to make it easy for readers to visualize the numbers.

B: Thank you very much for your suggestion. We’ll further improve our website presentation to better deliver information to readers. 

A: Mehar Abdul sattar Salfi of Pakistan told us that he used to be a regular radio listener. But now he has a mobile phone so he gets in touch withVOV on Facebook and website.

B: On our website you can read daily news and features and listen to our VOV5, VOV24/7 and VOVworld service. VOVworld service is the program you are listening to now. It is broadcast on shortwave to all continents.VOV5 and VOV24/7 are domestic channels with more news of local interests. Visiting our website, you can listen to any program at any convenient time.

A:Vera Thompson read a story about Nigerian traditional attire in the Culture Rendezvous segment on our website. He said he needs an outfit and asked where can he buy it. Vera said he likes the headgear but unable to tie it.

B: It’s pity that we don’t know any Nigerian clothes shop in Vietnam. There are some shops having foreign clothes for hire for performance purposes. But they have mainly clothes of Asian countries such as Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, South Korea, China, and Japan.

A: Justin Demetri of the US told us that he was happy to find VOV station for the first time on August 7 at 21:50UTC, on the frequency of 9730khz using the webSDR located at the University of Tweente in the Netherlands. He said: “It was fun to hear just a little bit of music and a story about mural paintings. Now that I know and I will make sure to tune in again.”

B: We’ll send you our frequency list so you can tune in to our channel at your convenient time.

A: Siddhartha Bhattacharjee of India wants to know about online transaction and telemarketing in Vietnam. Are there any fraud cases? How do you resolve this problem?

B: The benefits of e-commerce are undeniable, but it also has a negative side, including fraud in online transactions and telesales. Vietnamese commercial banks have issued warnings to customers about common fraud.

A: Fraudsters tend to contact account holders by telephone, on social media or by email, pretending to be their relatives or officials and asking these customers to transfer money to them.They even pose as bank officials and ask for passwords to bank accounts.

B: Customers are advised to keep passwords to their bank accounts private, consider whether transactions are safe, conduct transactions on official websites, and log out of accounts after transactions.When suspecting fraudulent bank activities, clients should temporarily close their account or change their password before contacting the bank for further instruction.

A: I think unwanted calls and texts are common problems worldwide. Spam text messages and calls offering land, houses and insurance for sale, as well as collecting debts, have bombarded phone users.Along with cellphone providers, the Vietnamese Ministry of Communications and Information is fighting spam calls, which have become an issue.

B: The Ministry said in a draft regulation on spam calls, messages and emails that companies guilty of telemarketing calls before 9 a.m. and after 10 p.m. could be fined 860 to 1,700 USD.Businesses which charge subscribers for receiving telemarketing calls will be fined 430 to 860 USD. The ministry has piloted a tool to filter these phone calls and would continue to develop it.

A: Thank you to all our listeners for sending your reception reports. We’ll send e-verification cards to confirm the reports. We always welcome your feedback at:

B: English Service, VOVworld, the Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu street, Hanoi, Vietnam. Or you can email us at: englishsection@vov.vn. You’re invited to visit us online at vovworld.vn, where you can hear both live and recorded programs. Check out our VOV Media App, available on both the IOS and Android platforms, to hear our live broadcasts. We look forward to your feedback on the mobile version of vovworld.vn. Once again, thank you all for listening. Goodbye until next time.