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On to the news! A Weekend of Good News
While the COVID-19 situation continues to horrify in Italy, Spain and the US and Japan and Singapore face rapidly rising case numbers, Vietnam witnessed a rather remarkable few days.
Only four new cases were announced over the weekend, bringing the national tally to 241, and none have been announced so far today. The Ministry of Health generally releases information on cases early in the morning and then in the evening, so keep an eye on things tonight. Whenever I talk with friends and family in the US, they are stunned by how well Vietnam has done in managing the outbreak.
Just over 67,000 people remain in isolation nationwide, with 23,992 of those people in home quarantine.
Of course, it's still far too early to say that Vietnam is out of the woods. Over the weekend a cutlery factory in Binh Duong Province, which neighbors Saigon, was shut down after a South Korean employee who had been working there tested positive for COVID-19 upon returning to his home country. Dozens of people who had been in direct contact with him have been quarantined, and more are being tracked down.
In a particularly odd case, a Swedish national who has been in Vietnam since December tested positive while undergoing treatment following a traffic accident in Hanoi. Authorities do not know how he contracted COVID-19 and are working to track down people he interacted with.
Those developments are concerning, but overall the last few days have been very positive, and if the number of new cases remains low throughout the week, Vietnam will be in really good shape.
The 'national social distancing campaign,' which runs until April 15, meanwhile, has been enforced unevenly. The Hanoi government has implemented a range of fines for people who are outside without a good reason or wearing a mask (VND200,000-300,000, or US$10-15), or businesses which fail to follow regulations (VND20 million, or US$850).
Saigon, meanwhile, has not announced any fines, and when I went for a neighborhood run around sunset yesterday, dozens of people were out walking, jogging and cycling, many in close proximity and some without masks on. If the good news regarding new infections continues, it's going to be awfully hard to convince people that they need to remain inside all the time.
In one final tidbit, Vingroup, who has been pretty quiet during all of this, signed an agreement with Medtronic, an American medical device company, to produce 55,000 ventilators a month at its huge car and smartphone factories. Production is expected to begin within two weeks, and the conglomerate will sell the items to the Ministry of Health at a reduced price.
