From a statistical point of view it appears as though Vietnam is doing pretty well as far as containing the virus is concerned. They stopped letting Chinese in a long time ago and the number of countries that they put a temporary ban on has increased over time. There is no way to know if they are reporting the number of cases properly but the reaction has been swift and at least from my point of view, effective.
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You may recall that when I first moved here that I was talking about how my flight was very empty and that we were not screened in any fashion upon entering the country. Well, that has changed a lot since I entered the country at the end of February. Flights aren't empty, they don't exist for the most part and the ones that are coming here are subjected to a huge amount of screening and certain nationalities are required to quarantine in some fashion or another, I am not going to speculate on what that entails.
However, many more nationalities have been banned outright and it's from the nations that you would expect because they have the highest numbers of infections. This is true for all except one case. The U.K. had their visa privileges revoked because of the actions of just a few people who tested positive and then instead of listening to officials, decided to flee the area potentially infecting a bunch of people along the way. All the places that they visited were shut down and treated in some capacity but again, I don't know exactly what that means. All I heard was a couple of bars were raided (in a calm manner) and shut down for treatment. The people currently in the bars had their information taken down and they were all tested for fevers on the spot. As far as I know those places are open again.
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The popular Bamboo 2 bar was one of the places raided and shut down only to reopen a few days later
This is just in the city that I live in, which as far as I know hasn't had a single case of the virus. Actually, if the statistics can be trusted Vietnam has done very well keeping the virus at bay and if it is truthful I take my hat off to the admins here.
However, it isn't a rosey posey.
The tourism industry, which this area depends very heavily on, has been almost completely destroyed for this year. Many of the people who work in this industry now have no work, no money, and no savings. Therefore, there has been an uptick in the amount of petty crime that I have noticed. I now am quite watchful of my belongings when I am out as phone theft is one of the more common things that is happening now.
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A new rule was declared just a few days ago that in populated areas, everyone, including foreigners are required to wear the masks. I have heard lots of people say that the mask doesn't actually prevent anything and I'm not a specialist so I have no idea. I will, however, comply. I suppose there are repercussions such as a fine for not doing so... plus I see no reason to put people on edge even if the science behind it is wrong.
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I think the only really terrible thing that is starting to happen is that people are starting to play the "blame game" about who is responsible for all of this and seeing as how I am an outsider here, people in my particular demographic are likely to be pointed at as a "cause." This happens all over the world and my country certainly isn't innocent of this sort of stuff either.
There have been stories of businesses refusing service or even entry to the buildings to certain nationalities and now this has started to extend to basically anyone who is not Vietnamese. This is not widespread and certainly wouldn't apply to any place that depends on tourism but there has been some profiling going on here and the story of the U.K. people evading authorities so they could continue backpacking rather than look out for the overall public health certainly didn't help matters.
The good news is that there is nobody panic purchasing certain items at the grocery stores. The last time I was there it was business as usual. The only difference was that everyone was wearing masks.
I need to keep my fingers crossed that some sort of global solution is found in say, the next 3 months because visas in this country incorporate leaving the country - a situation that has always kind of baffled me - and this introduces another problem: how are you going to get back in?
For me, since i have Nadi to look after and all, I will simply violate immigration law and deal with the consequences later if the alternative is to abandon her... which is obviously not really an alternative at all!
Abandoning Nadi is NEVER an option!!! If all goes belly up, bring or send her to me here in Chiang Mai and she can hang with us till things stabilize and sort themselves. A serious and standing offer. We have a big Thai house and fenced garden and an A/C guest room she could use . :) Our 3 cats would just have to handle it. LOL...
CNX is VERY FRICKIN QUIET too!!! Hells bells. One day at a time.
Be well, my friend. Between steem and corona and being in a putrid burning season fog, everything feels rather armagedonish. Urgh.
I get a message when posting this comment that you should stop using steemit.com :)
"A new rule was declared just a few days ago that in populated areas, everyone, including foreigners are required to wear the masks. "
Not a bad rule at all in my opinion
Glad things aren't too crazy over there! Stay safe.
I remember living in Vietnam. Hey, is that Bamboo place in Saigon?
maybe the original one is, this one is in Da Nang
Nice
From what I have read your 3 months is a little hopeful and more like 18 months. Clinical testing and trials still has to happen and why the time period is so long. That was supposedly a best case scenario as well so I hope for your sake it is shorter.
oh i was just talking about how long my current visa is. I had no idea the trials could be that long, perhaps they will expedite it a bit. Who knows, either way I am not really all that worried about it. I spend most of my day in voluntary quarantine anyway.
While wearing a mask, you touch your own face quite less. So perhaps it makes sense. And the disease is not always obvious to the infected person, so it prevents them from spreading the virus further.
every little bit helps. I don't mind. I just wont wear it when I am running on the beach...well, that is unless they force me to... I guess I'll find out today!
I didn't know that the coronavirus had also arrived in Vietnam.
They've done a really good job containing it... well, if the official reports can be trusted.
!giphy dreadful
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I saw that 'Minister of Health' guy in Thailand again recently blaming the "Dirty Farangs from the west who don't take showers and are coming from Europe to 'escape' the virus."
'IF' that was the proper translation posted within the video. In either case, the guy is obviously 'hateful' it seems from the facial expressions he wears.
I suspect that he is a member of the Thai Elite club that bent over backwards for all that Chinese loan/gift money poring in for 'special favors' that has now backfired on them, causing economic harm to Thailand.
Yeah that guy is a real piece of work and he makes these comments outside of his official capacity on a private Twitter account. The tweet you are referring to was deleted just a day after he made them, but people don't forget!
He has a profound lack of understanding of how this, or just illness in general functions. But this wouldn't be the first government appointee that doesn't know what they are doing!
You sure got that right :>)
By the way...he doesn't look Thai to me...??? More like Chinese. An 'implanted' operative perhaps.
well a lot of Thai people have some level of Chinese heritage. I have no idea about his background. The fact that learning to speak Thai is almost impossible would insure that he almost certainly is Thai though :P
Very good points...
Stay safe and well. We have all but shutdown in my state. Restaurants are only open for take out and drive through service. Grocery stores and stuff like that are open, but pretty much everything else is shut down. It is pretty crazy. I have a feeling this may be my last day at work for a while.
Very interesting sir gooddream, the government there must have acted very quickly to take preventive and containment measures. This was 5 days ago, have you seen any panic buying since?