If you live in the states you might be thinking "2 cases? Why don't you shut up!" but it's kind of a big deal because Vietnam was very proud of the fact that they have had zero deaths and very few cases as well as zero incidents that could be considered "outbreaks" the likes of which have been seen in other countries.
2 days ago a single new case was confirmed (sort of) and now today there is another one. The crazy and perhaps dangerous aspect of all of this is that both of the cases are from men who by their own admission rarely leave their neighborhoods and neither of them has recently traveled out of country (one of them NEVER has and doesn't even have a passport.)
source
At the moment nothing major has been declared on the general population, but there have been reports of police turning up at foreigners' registered place of residence (it is required that we report where we are staying) and they check your passport to confirm that you haven't traveled then do a quick search to see if anyone is staying in your domicile that is not registered to be there.
My apologies for the out of focus pic but the popo probably weren't keen on having their picture taken
The police have been very polite and professional about all of this and there is a very real reason for them doing so and it is not xenophobia but rather the fact that it has been discovered that 30 or so Chinese jumped the border (and I do not have any idea how they know this, they don't tell us) and since they can not legally get a place to stay without a visa, it is presumed they are staying with friends. The first place to check would probably be at the homes of Chinese nationals but the Vietnamese police are being very thorough. Around 50 people have been quarantined and contact tracing is being performed.
I certainly hope they are successful because as it stands now as far as a I know there are only 2 countries in the world where the population is allowed to do whatever they want including attend sporting events and concerts with thousands of other people and Vietnam is one of them. I am very fortunate to have arrived here when i did.
Here's some other information that is purely speculation on my part
I do not believe that this country has had zero deaths from Covid nor do i believe that such a few number of people have ever been infected. For one thing, almost no one has even been tested so how would they know? This country also does not have a free press and any wild speculation the likes of which you see in USA news would be quickly squashed by the government. "News" is a joke in USA but we have the opposite side of the spectrum over here in that there are no "opinion articles" unless they are pro-whatever-the-government is doing. Therefore, I think it is extremely likely that the real figures are either not known, or are being concealed.
It seems extremely unlikely to me that there has been zero exposure especially considering how frequently the Chinese travel this country and that a lockdown of the borders didn't happen until March. I feel as though either the Vietnamese simply have an increased immunity to the very ill effects of this virus, or that they don't feel the need to pump up those numbers for the sake of publicity. If anything, they seem to be very interested in keeping their numbers as low as possible in order to prevent public panic or maybe to impress the rest of the world - which has been successful and they have gotten a ton of good press about it.
source
Another side of this, and I think it is potentially worse, is if they have been successful in not exposing any of their population to it. If that is the case, and I don't believe for a second that it is, then we have the most susceptible population in the world and will never be able to let anyone in or out of here until Bill Gates finishes his vaccine tracking chip (joking.)
So for the time being I hope that they are able to get to the bottom of this because even though our situation of lockdown was very mild compared to other countries, we did still have to wear masks in public and many businesses were forced to close. I'm truly hopeful that this doesn't happen again because I've been quite enjoying being allowed to go outside.
Cambodia has reported similar stats and info about COVID-19. I would have to say you can't trust either country's media fully, but if I had to choose which one I trusted more, it would be Vietnamese media.
It's true that there is likely much more to this story, in Cambodia also. One thing I think helping is that people don't do handshakes that often, and the populations are for the most part young and healthy and full of Vitamin-D.
That alone can't explain the situation though, and I wonder if we will ever know the full story.
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Here the situation in India is when we watch news. The senerio is total different. They show us so many number of cases and on the other side when we go to market there everyone is cool and fearless. Their protection is just a simple mask. Sometimes it looks government is fooling around people. God knows what’s the truth.
An acquaintance made an appointment for Covid-19 testing for him and his wife at a National Drugstore chain here in the US. Something came up to prevent them from showing up for their tests. They were sent a notice shortly thereafter that their tests came back 'positive'...?!?!?!?!
True story.
i am hearing more and more stories like this from a lot of people. I wonder if social media would scrub the evidence off the internet if someone were to document this.
They would do whatever their 'controllers' demanded...as always.
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You are 10% beneficiary of the post.we were made very aware of this in Chiang Mai and the government is using it as some sort of tale of caution. As soon as I read it i thought that Vietnam's untouched record was heading out the door!
I’m glad you made it to Vietnam before all of this chaos. I hope your new home can remain a place where life isn’t supremely restricted.
Also props for snapping that photo, even with it being blurry. I’m sure you got a little adrenaline rush sneaking that. Ninja skills.
I do believe certain countries are buffing the numbers up and not down to leach more support of whoever they normally leach from. We were tested last week as the doctor couldn't tell the difference between flu and covid as they are so similar. Still waiting on the results which is a joke in itself as Thursday will be one week. Our lockdown continues with new drama every week and see it as the government screwing the businessman to correct wrongs from the past. They are definitely removing wealth by whatever means necessary it seems.
Well you make a completely valid point... I mean how can they say there have been none if there has been little to no testing done. We had the opposite sort of thing here in SA... especially in the Western Cape. Our province has had the most EFFICIENT levels of testing across the country and therefore we were in the limelight for quite some time as a "huge problem" - but it was simply that the rest of the country was not testing properly. Quite frankly, I am not sure I believe ANY of the figures, anywhere at all.
...Wish we had "zero" cases here... then perhaps we could be relieved from the longest hard lockdown in the world.
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Agreed. I don't believe any of the numbers. It's so skewed due to government funding here in US. A friend of mine had a brother who took his own life recently (sad story, sorry). Cause of death on certificate was COVID. They are suing the hospital over it. What a mess. Hi bye the way 👋
i know another person in a similar situation although it involved a grandparent who was on hospice care and dying from multiple afflictions for over a decade.
Although when the family sued the hospital or coroner or whoever immediately retracted the cause of death without going to court.
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Bill Gates vaccine chips .. 😂
Maybe those few people are testing false positives. Or maybe the government lies. Either way it does impact your thoughts on comfort and safety. I think North Korea still has no cases either. 😜
It’s hard to find a good news outlet around here. I read small local papers. I can get the gist from them. I can’t stand listening to biased news channels. So irritating no matter what side I side with.
Keep safe!
yeah it has gotten to the point where I don't bother with any of the news. Its not like knowing any of that is helping me in any way.
The meme's about North Korea's Covid cases are pretty humorous and sadly, probably accurate also.