As virus spreads, Vietnam taking extreme measures

Vietnam isn't messing around... and I am at the center of the new outbreak... well, not that I am one of the infected or anything but the recent outbreak is purported to have originated where I live at the hands of some Vietnamese people that helped to smuggle in around 30 Chinese nationals, perhaps more. It is all speculation at this point as to how the virus, which was all but eradicated from the country, managed to get back in, but Chinese who entered the country illegally is one scenario that would make sense.

I don't want to make assumptions though because it could also be because widespread testing was never actually done and the virus may have been here all along.

So for the time being, almost everything is completely shut. Almost all public areas are closed and those that are not have officials that will approach you if people gather in groups. Just yesterday myself and a friend of mine that I have been around every single day were sitting on opposite sides of a table talking and having a beer (at our own building) and were approached by an official for questioning. He was polite, but just needed to make sure that we were being safe. I don't like this sort of authoritarian ways, nor to i actually believe in the power of lockdowns but I am not Vietnamese, so if an official asks me to do something and it doesn't involved handing over my wallet, I will normally comply.

The government has also announced a crusade against "fake news" and is monitoring locals FB groups attended by both Vietnamese and foreigners and has vowed to prosecute the distribution of unofficial releases of information. This is where, I think, the communism aspect of this country is kicking in a bit because they don't really have a free press and I suppose this make the population easier to control if the only information they have access to is that which the government provides.

One could argue that in this particular situation such an approach is actually effective, since even with this recent outbreak, Vietnam is handling the virus much better than other countries. The mood in the country is one of a bit of disappointment, since up until a few days ago, the country had a "0 death" count overall. This is a driving force behind the anger towards the smugglers sneaking foreigners past border patrols.

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Gao Liang Gu, pictured above is one of the leaders of a human trafficking gang responsible for the illegal import of Chinese people into the city and while I do not know if it is the case or not, this group is being attributed with having brought the virus "back." We don't really know if that is true or not but Gao and his crew are looking at more than 20 years in prison each for this crime, which they will almost certainly receive since generally the public tend to point the finger at foreigners when things go awry.

At the moment the city of Da Nang is very quiet and the population is complying. I went out on a bike ride yesterday and everyone had masks on, and was keeping away from one another as much as you can in a compact city with more than a million people in it.

The local government also released information that every single person in the city will be tested for Covid, and I presume that means me as well. I'll let you know what happens!