
HANOI -- Vietnam is now counting on support from religious groups to help Ho Chi Minh City through its worsening COVID-19 outbreak, a sign of desperation from the Communist Party of Vietnam-led government that rarely hobnobs with the old foe of Marxism.
More than 1,000 Catholic nuns and priests as well as Buddhist monks with medical skills have taken part in a government program to combat the pandemic as the death toll rises sharply in the country's largest city.