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Here we go. Bach Mai Latest & the Non-Lockdown Lockdown
Shortly after I sent out Monday's update, this article on the difficulty of containing the Bach Mai Hospital cluster in Hanoi was published. It was terrifying, with news that thousands of patients had been transferred to other facilities before it was locked down, in addition to this paragraph: "Chung [Hanoi's leader] said he had asked foreign experts on disease prevention and control to analyze the Bach Mai Hospital case and assess the risk of Covid-19 spreading to the community, and was told the situation at Bach Mai could be more complex than at hospitals in Daegu in South Korea, Lombardy in Italy and New York in the U.S. considering how many patients and others it has entering and leaving every day."
Fast forward to today, and health officials are monitoring roughly 9,000 people across 12 provinces who visited Bach Mai in recent weeks.
Also on Monday, it was announced that Vietnam had bought around 200,000 rapid coronavirus test kits from South Korea, to be used on people in quarantine facilities and those linked to Bach Mai. It appears those have been put to quick use: at the start of the week, 35,808 had been tested since the outbreak began in January, and as of last night that figure had jumped to 67,456.
There are now almost 80,000 people in quarantine, roughly half of whom are in home isolation, while the national COVID-19 case total is at 227. Over 40 cases have been linked to Bach Mai, while most of the other new cases are people who were quarantined upon arrival from abroad. In terrific news, 75 people have now recovered from their illness.
The other big news of the week is the "national social distancing campaign" which began at midnight Wednesday and is set to last until April 15. Accordingly, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc announced that the government would no longer allow public gatherings of more than two people, while people wouldn't be able to leave their homes except for necessities, and two meters of space must be maintained between individuals.
This sounded an awful lot like a lockdown but, confusingly, officials quickly clarified that this was NOT a lockdown - these were just strong recommendations, not enforced regulations.
Judging by social media, people are now very unclear on what is allowed or not - lots of questions about exercising outside and dog walking. I've heard that police in Hanoi have asked runners to go home, but I haven't heard of anything like that happening in Saigon yet.
Life in my neighborhood doesn't seem much different compared to before this announcement (quiet, but people are still exercising and going to the open shops, etc.), and my concern is that the government will see that people are still out on the streets and react with a truly strict lockdown. This is clearly a touchy subject for top leadership, as they've been very clear and decisive throughout this pandemic, but this has left plenty of people confused. (The government has also officially declared COVID-19 a national epidemic - previously it had only been declared on a provincial level.)
Any type of travel, however, is now extremely difficult. Inbound international flights have ended, while domestic flights are down to a fraction of their normal volume, and private vehicle services have been suspended. (Grab cars are no longer available, though last I checked you could still get a Grab bike.) The borders with Cambodia and Laos have been closed, and Saigon and Hanoi have both set up checkpoints at major entry roads to monitor traffic into these cities.
For something more light-hearted, check out these drivers who got stopped by the police, weren't wearing masks, and tried to prove their health by doing push-ups on the side of a highway. Extra Links:
