It was a week of Tet (Lunar New Year), containing COVID-19, a new draft decree on personal data protection, and an unexpected appointment of a military general to the top seat of the Communist Party’s propaganda commission.

COVID-19

• Vietnam is expected to secure 60 million doses of vaccines, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said on February 19. One day earlier, the health agency announced that 204,000 doses of the vaccine will be available in Vietnam by February 28.
• The cafes, street restaurants, and historical sites closure order in Hanoi has remained unchanged, but in fact, many cafes and restaurants are still open.

It’s been a long time since a military general led the Communist Party’s propaganda machine

One needs to look back to the 1980s to see military generals running the Communisty Party’s propaganda departments. Le Quang Dao, Dang Quoc Bao, and Tran Do were the ones holding this position back then. General Tran Do later became known as the high-ranking member of the Party who called for a multiparty political system in Vietnam in the 1990s; he was expelled from the Party in 1999.