Here are today’s leading news stories:

COVID-19 Updates

-- The Vietnamese Ministry of Health announced an additional 31 COVID-19 cases, including 30 community infections in Bac Ninh, Bac Giang, Lang Son, and Ho Chi Minh City, on Wednesday morning, raising the national tally to 4,543 patients with 2,687 recoveries and 37 virus-related deaths.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control announced on Tuesday night it was looking for passengers who had boarded the same flight VN1179 on May 5 from northern Hai Phong City to Ho Chi Minh City as a woman who tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday.

-- According to the Ministry of Health, Vietnam will get 31 million COVID-19 vaccine doses manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech this year.

-- On Tuesday, a woman living in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 7, who works with patient No. 4,514 at Deloitte Vietnam Company in District 3, was found infected with the novel coronavirus, according to the municipal Center for Disease Control.

-- Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City quashed a false rumor on Tuesday evening about the execution of curfew hours from 10:00 pm to 5:00 am in the city.

-- Police in Ho Chi Minh City brought three Chinese men suspected of entering Vietnam illegally to a centralized quarantine zone after finding them staying at an apartment in District 4 on Tuesday.

-- Authorities in northern Hai Phong have asked all residents to avoid going outside and leaving their homes after 10:00 pm every day and limited public gatherings to 10 people after a new COVID-19 cluster was recently detected in the city.

Society

-- Police in Ho Chi Minh City arrested four transgender women on Tuesday for stealing phones and properties from foreigners.

-- Military officers in Quang Tri Province in central Vietnam have finished moving a 250-kilogram unexploded bomb away from the Thach Han River.

-- Police officers in Ho Chi Minh City seized nearly 700 kilograms of chemicals used to increase snail weight and over 1.8 metric tons of doused snails from a wholesale facility in District 8 on Tuesday morning.

Business

-- E-mart, South Korea's largest retailer, revealed through a public disclosure on Monday that its board of directors had decided to sell off a 100 percent stake in E-mart Vietnam Co. to Truong Hai Auto Corporation (THACO) Group, according to the Korea Times.

-- A company in Da Nang has been fined VND30 million (US$1,296) for going against authorities’ order to suspend operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Politics

-- Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung, head of ASEAN SOM of Vietnam, represented the country in the 27th ASEAN-China Senior Officials' Consultation (ACSOC) via videoconferencing on Tuesday morning.