DAILY LIFE IN VIETNAM DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC 2020-2021

They are testing my building today.  I went down to get tested and the line was about 15-20 people on the side of the building facing the canal, with sufficient spacing.  I waited only about 5 minutes.  They had me write my name, age and apartment number, but didn't want to look at the Bluezone App.  The swab was slightly painful when they twisted it, but otherwise not much of a bother.  It was nice to be outside for a while.

Think tomorrow end of play its 4 days quarantine left to go all going well & suppose 1 more test. Good ladies Wimbledon final yesterday, not one of the great finals but good I think. So settle down tonight for the men's final & England vs Italy if its on Fox.
Managed to source some beetroot on FB market today but for some reason (probably my fault) ended up with 2kg from one supplier & 2kg from another but hey ho juiced up 2 kg & had a bottle of vinegar spare so pickled the other 2 kg. All sorts of food still arriving anonymously at the door & at the collection point, still cant believe the generosity of our friends & neighbours.

On a slightly different note one neighbour sent me a link to the vaccine register & said I should get my name on it & now I see it on our FB Emerald group encouraging us all to get registered ASAP. Does anyone know if this is solely for Vietnamese citizens or everyone?

goodolboy wrote:

On a slightly different note one neighbour sent me a link to the vaccine register & said I should get my name on it & now I see it on our FB Emerald group encouraging us all to get registered ASAP. Does anyone know if this is solely for Vietnamese citizens or everyone?

Vaccine registration is for all, but remember that you'll get the shot at a hospital, not at the vaccination site.

Off topic, but I had to go to HCMC D1 from Binh Duong today. Erie feeling as the road leading to the city was nearly empty. I had my papers ready including my negative quick test taken yesterday. Enter the city, passed 1 more checkpoint, and I was stop at cau Binh Trieu (old ben xe Mien Dong station) and was told to turn around and find another way in. I managed to work my way into to D1, and it’s a sight to behold. Virtually empty with a few motor bikes and plenty of cops. My point is, those living in HCMC, be careful. They don’t just shut down the biggest city in Vietnam for no reason. There’s more cases to come.

CoderX10 wrote:

Off topic, but I had to go to HCMC D1 from Binh Duong today...

The only reason this might be considered off topic is that the title of the thread is about daily life in 2020... 

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

The only reason this might be considered off topic is that the title of the thread is about daily life in 2020... 

Perhaps goodolboy could add 2021 to the end of the title (2020-2021).  And in 5.5 months, change the number to 2020 - 2022.  Why have a new thread when this one works just fine?

Here are the official words on the lockdown in VT.  If anyone needs to read it in English, I'll translate tomorrow.  The gist of the matter: 14 days (not 30, thank you!) under Directive 16, starting midnight tomorrow. 

doc 1

doc 2

Ciambella wrote:

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

The only reason this might be considered off topic is that the title of the thread is about daily life in 2020... 

Perhaps goodolboy could add 2021 to the end of the title (2020-2021).  And in 5.5 months, change the number to 2020 - 2022.  Why have a new thread when this one works just fine?

Ms Ciambella,
Mr Thicko here (oops better not say that about myself might upset some reader) 
I totally agree with your comment, it makes good sense & I would be happy to change the heading but need some guidance on how to do it please.

goodolboy wrote:

Ciambella wrote:

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

The only reason this might be considered off topic is that the title of the thread is about daily life in 2020... 

Perhaps goodolboy could add 2021 to the end of the title (2020-2021).  And in 5.5 months, change the number to 2020 - 2022.  Why have a new thread when this one works just fine?

Ms Ciambella,
Mr Thicko here (oops better not say that about myself might upset some reader) 
I totally agree with your comment, it makes good sense & I would be happy to change the heading but need some guidance on how to do it please.

I "reported" your comment to admin, asking them to change the title of the thread for you.

Cheers!

All residents floor level 9 we Just had the 3rd Covid test so hopefully all is good & thats the end of quarantine this time around anyways. Not that it will change things for us , still wont go out that much, even in the gardens first thing in the morning not  many out walking, certainly nothing like before.  Ms My just showed me an article saying that the lady who owns Dai Nam Park has offered it to the government if they run out of hospital space.......well I think that was the jist of it.
Lots of pretty scary videos doing the rounds now about how things are progressing here in HCMC.

Ah well one goes out & one goes in.
So looking good for us tomorrow we will go out of lock down at Emerald Block F floor 9. But this morning woke up to the news that Emerald Block E ground floor has gone into lock down & the apartment that has been noted with possible link to infection is the E Block grocery store!

There was a case detected in our hem.  We were told to send one resident per house within the hem for testing again today, street by street within the hem.  This time they did the collection procedure inside the hem itself, smaller scale than before.

We got groceries delivered, 4-5 days later than expected, but they arrived eventually.  Some things were out of stock, but we were able to get most of what we were looking for.

Over in district 2 things are looking a little bleak. Both local vinmart closed today, no reason given.

Family Mart still open but looks like a stampede has been through taking anything and everything... If you want canned drinks and candy you're fine

My market just reopen today after 5 day closure when one staff test positive.. not much fresh on shelves.. now veggies or fruit.

Local bottle water delivery company also closed...

I definitely don't like what's happening to you guys.

If I hit the like button on one of your posts, it's just to let you know that someone's listening.

Update on the lockdown in Vung Tau:

1/  I found out today that VT population is not over 500k as shown on the first line in the first page of Google search.  Nor is it 240k as Population Hub says.  Wiki shows two different numbers but since that page is full of errors, I'm not using its data.

The city document indicated that there are 340,118 people living in VT.  I'm sure those are registered locals and foreigners combined.  The unregistered people would add to that number, but may not be as much as it was in the past -- that is, if people obey the new registration law that went into effect two weeks ago.

2/  Mass testing starts today.

All residents of Wards 11, 12, and Rạch Dừa will be tested.  These 3 wards ae considered high risk or very high risk.

One person in each household in Wards 7, 8, Thắng Tam, and Nguyễn An Ninh  will be tested.  The cases in these 4 wards came from outside of the community.

For the rest of the city where there isn't any case (not yet anyway), testing will be random.  Most foreigners live in these areas.

The total of people being tested will be 124,828 or 36.7% of the city's population.

(Testing for employees of Vietsovpetro, PV Gas, PTSC, Long Sơn Oil, and Đông Xuyên Industrial area is independent of the city and not being counted in the above numbers.) 

3/  This statement doesn't make sense to me:  "An average of 200 - 250 samples will be taken each day."  I hope some zeros are missing from those two numbers, otherwise it will be the end of 2022 before all testing is done.

4/  Only one person of each household is allowed on the street for food shopping on designated day (odd or even).  The permission card will be checked at the checkpoints outside of each market.  Card is only valid for one outing and only for the route between Point A and Point B.

5/  Twenty people were fined for driving on the street without permission; five were fined for being outdoors without masks.  The city collected 46M on the first day of the lockdown.  (In case you wonder, documents and receipts were given for the money collected.)

My friend, who lives in the neighborhood northeast of the QL1A/QL52 interchange, told me that they are being locked down further, until 28 July, because they found two more cases there.  This will be her third lockdown -- her neighborhood was shut down before the HCMC lockdown started, too.  She figures it will be two months total under lockdown, with a few days of freedom in between the three times.

Ciambella wrote:

Update on the lockdown in Vung Tau:

1/  I found out today that VT population is not over 500k as shown on the first line in the first page of Google search.  Nor is it 240k as Population Hub says.  Wiki shows two different numbers but since that page is full of errors, I'm not using its data.

The city document indicated that there are 340,118 people living in VT.  I'm sure those are registered locals and foreigners combined.  The unregistered people would add to that number, but may not be as much as it was in the past -- that is, if people obey the new registration law that went into effect two weeks ago.

2/  Mass testing starts today.

All residents of Wards 11, 12, and Rạch Dừa will be tested.  These 3 wards ae considered high risk or very high risk.

One person in each household in Wards 7, 8, Thắng Tam, and Nguyễn An Ninh  will be tested.  The cases in these 4 wards came from outside of the community.

For the rest of the city where there isn't any case (not yet anyway), testing will be random.  Most foreigners live in these areas.

The total of people being tested will be 124,828 or 36.7% of the city's population.

(Testing for employees of Vietsovpetro, PV Gas, PTSC, Long Sơn Oil, and Đông Xuyên Industrial area is independent of the city and not being counted in the above numbers.) 

3/  This statement doesn't make sense to me:  "An average of 200 - 250 samples will be taken each day."  I hope some zeros are missing from those two numbers, otherwise it will be the end of 2022 before all testing is done.

4/  Only one person of each household is allowed on the street for food shopping on designated day (odd or even).  The permission card will be checked at the checkpoints outside of each market.  Card is only valid for one outing and only for the route between Point A and Point B.

5/  Twenty people were fined for driving on the street without permission; five were fined for being outdoors without masks.  The city collected 46M on the first day of the lockdown.  (In case you wonder, documents and receipts were given for the money collected.)

Should send them around Thao Dien and An Phu, dozens sitting around with their mates on street corners drinking and eating out of the backs of their cars..

Even see security guards with no masks..

Getting very serious now.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coron … VID-surges

Hopefully this will help everyone get the fresh food you need.

Apologies for the website glitch that doesn't render Vietnamese language characters properly.

(From Vietnam News)

vietnamnews.vn/economy/994152/hcm-city-to-set-up-1000-outlets-to-sell-groceries-as-retailers-struggle-to-meet-demand

HCM CITY – Around 1,000 outlets will be set up around HCM City to sell groceries since supermarkets are struggling to meet the burgeoning demand amid the COVID-19 shutdown, its Department of Industry and Trade said.

Bùi Tá Hoàng Vũ, director of the department, told a meeting held to review a week of implementing Directive 16 that supply of food and foodstuffs has become difficult since the city’s three wholesale markets closed down.

The volume transported to the city is down by half to 2,200 – 2,700 tonnes a day.

Since many traditional markets are closed, people are queuing up at supermarkets to buy essential goods, putting a strain on their capacity.

People have been finding it very difficult to buy groceries despite supermarkets’ claim that supply is sufficient, especially since many are stocking up fearing the worst.

The department has been urging retailers and supermarket chains to increase their stocks by up to three times.

Businesses partaking in the city’s regular market stabilisation programme are also increasing their supply.

Since July 11 the department has also been working with logistics and other businesses to increase food supply, but the city is still unable to meet daily demand.

Supermarket chains in the city have topped out and have no more storage space, according to the department.

It is working with businesses, postal companies, delivery services and logistics businesses to set up the 1,000 distribution points.

Even businesses such as baby products retailer Con Cưng and beauty products supplier Guardian are selling vegetables at their stores.

E-commerce platforms such as Tiki, Lazada and Sendo have also agreed to supply vegetables using their own warehouses.

The department is also working with Thủ Đức City and Hóc Môn District to set up transhipment stations at wholesale markets to increase supply of essential goods.

Nguyễn Thành Phong, chairman of the city People’s Committee, said the city should consider setting up sales outlets on streets.

HCM City has become the COVID epicentre of the country with more than 22,000 cases so far since the fourth and latest outbreak in April.

It has mandated social distancing since May 31.

- VNS

It looks like the glitch has been fixed. The Vietnamese language characters appear normal

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

It looks like the glitch has been fixed. The Vietnamese language characters appear normal

I used a French word with accent marks the other day and it went through OK so I suspected then that the problem had been fixed for Vietnamese as well.  Ciambella gets a trophy for staying on this one.   

THIGV wrote:

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

It looks like the glitch has been fixed. The Vietnamese language characters appear normal

I used a French word with accent marks the other day and it went through OK so I suspected then that the problem had been fixed for Vietnamese as well.  Ciambella gets a trophy for staying on this one.   

On my Android phone, when using the preview post function, the characters still do not render properly in the preview.

As long as the actual posts are not affected, that's cool

Well looks like we are in for more than a 14 day quarantine here at Emerald block F floor 9, by my calculations we should have been free 2 days ago but the barriers are still up this morning & the police are still at the elevator door food collection point. Not that it matters much really as we wont be going out much anyways.

Never mind here is a snippet of life for some that are worse off. Ms My's sister lives in Binh Duong & is now Covid f0 & in Covid hospital, I have seen some photos & lets just say it was quite busy there. Her husband is from Taiwan & is manager of a factory in Binh Duong & is locked in at the factory because of Covid lock down. They have 2 small kids at home & the youngest sister (Auntie) is looking after them for now until hopefully the father can get back home (he is vaccinated already).
Down at the family home in Tien Giang right in the heart of the delta as of yesterday the ferry from the mainland to the island stopped its service & as far as I know thats them completely isolated but lucky they are pretty much self sufficient there.

Not meaning to play down the situation here in Vietnam cos it is serious but to put into some kind of international context...............from what I can see on the Vietnamese Ministry of Health page there were about 2,000 reported new cases from the day before as of 7pm last night in all Vietnam. On BBC News this morning in UK reported new cases yesterday were 55,000 & thats in a country with round about 60% of the population vaccinated & now people coming  from France to UK even if double doze vaccinated have still to do quarantine 10 days.

Ciambella wrote:

Update on the lockdown in Vung Tau:


2/  Mass testing starts today.

All residents of Wards 11, 12, and Rạch Dừa will be tested.  These 3 wards are considered high risk or very high risk.

One person in each household in Wards 7, 8, Thắng Tam, and Nguyễn An Ninh  will be tested.  The cases in these 4 wards came from outside of the community.

I'm in Thắng Tam ward. They dropped off the forms yesterday evening and said testing was between 3 and 4 pm today. Sent someone speaking English this morning at around 9 am to clarify the time and place. However, about an hour later, someone arrived and said "go now".

Testing was in the large courtyard at the school next door and was very efficient without the need for a line/queue as people were being tested as soon as they arrived. Basically, the whole process took less than five minutes.

Apparently, the test results take three days (?).

A new article about the hard life of tourists in Vietnam  :
https://e.vnexpress.net/news/travel/new … 09629.html

johnross23 wrote:

I'm in Thắng Tam ward... Testing was in the large courtyard at the school next door and was very efficient without the need for a line/queue as people were being tested as soon as they arrived. Basically, the whole process took less than five minutes.

Thank you, John.

Colinoscapee is in Nguyễn An Ninh ward, I think, or at least he was at one time.  Hopefully he'll let us know the goings-on in his area. 

Since the lockdown,  I only have the Bà Rịa Vũng Tàu Media for updates (and man, how often they update!  About 25 times a day, if not more; half are real news and the other half are opinions from the peanut gallery.)  According to the reports, Wards 11 and 12 were 100% tested.  (Does that mean every Mega Market employee was tested and hopefully, with negative result?  I'm concerned because MM is my preferred source of over-the-phone grocery.)  Ward 8 was already done, I think, and Ward 7 is being tested today.

Still, not every ward is represented so it would be great if other members chime in.

Laurent futur Nha Trang, are you still in VT?

Nothing here in Ward 7, the local UBND seems to be a bit slow on the uptake.

I hope they get with the program down here real quick. No testing, just a small white truck driving around the town telling everybody to wear masks. They might be setting themselves up to a really rude awakening soon.  Not surprising though because of the education level of the leadership here at the local UBND level, just wish and hope it doesn't happen. Guess their just trying figure out how to make some money off it, sad.
Rick

Alan very sad today, still in lock down/quarantine, cant go out & it just came over the intercom that all people over 65 living at Emerald had to report to main gate # 1 to go get taken for first vaccine.

Sorry I was wrong,  just go a message from a neighbour.........its to go to gate 1 to register for vaccine

Budman1 wrote:

I hope they get with the program down here real quick. No testing, just a small white truck driving around the town telling everybody to wear masks. They might be setting themselves up to a really rude awakening soon.  Not surprising though because of the education level of the leadership here at the local UBND level, just wish and hope it doesn't happen. Guess their just trying figure out how to make some money off it, sad.
Rick

Looks like you will be going into lockdown soon, Rick.

Lockdown everywhere in the South with Directive 16, starting midnight, 19 July.  Two weeks late, I think.  They haven't yet decided whether to extend it in HCMC, last I read.  One of the options is to get even stricter, though.

colinoscapee wrote:

Budman1 wrote:

I hope they get with the program down here real quick. No testing, just a small white truck driving around the town telling everybody to wear masks. They might be setting themselves up to a really rude awakening soon.  Not surprising though because of the education level of the leadership here at the local UBND level, just wish and hope it doesn't happen. Guess their just trying figure out how to make some money off it, sad.
Rick

Looks like you will be going into lockdown soon, Rick.

Yep, we'll be in lockdown soon. A week too dang late I think, but at least there starting to get it right. I showed my wife about the msg I got from the Consulate when I got it this afternoon and she called everybody to get all the cart food  delivered in the AM and had the maid get a few things from the mini Cho a few blocks away. I got beer and smokes for the rest of the month, and she got 3 carts of grocery's from Mega Mart last week.
Rick

My wife and I both registered for the vaccine today using the online system.  Not hard at all. 

Our lock-down here in Chanh Phu Hoa, Ben Cat, starts at midnight Sunday, 18 Jul.

According to the Emergency Notification #9 I just received, the current lockdown in VT will start anew at midnight tomorrow for 14 days; we don't get credit for the 5 days (as of tomorrow) of this current lockdown.

I guess they do that so every city will start the lockdown on the same day.

Budman1 wrote:

she called everybody to get all the cart food  delivered in the AM and had the maid get a few things from the mini Cho a few blocks away. I got beer and smokes for the rest of the month, and she got 3 carts of grocery's from Mega Mart last week.
Rick

Almost 3M I spend less than 10 days ago (no beer, no smoke, nothing but groceries), and we'll need to call for replenishment soon.  Under normal circumstance, 3M is our monthly food budget.  If we gain weight during lockdown, I'll be madder than this Delta strain!

Starving to death is a good option to prevent people from dying from Covid 

If meat supplies run out, there is another option...

YouTube.com/MysteryMeat?

Jlgarbutt wrote:

Should send them around Thao Dien and An Phu, dozens sitting around with their mates on street corners drinking and eating out of the backs of their cars..

Even see security guards with no masks..

I think it's much more serious here in VT.  Every day, a report came out with the number of violations and the amount of fine collected.  On the average, it's 120M - 150M; some days the amount went over 200M.

As of 18.00 hrs tonight lock down Celadon City Emerald floor F9 is over (for now anyways) , barriers & police just disappeared.

5.887 cases today.
And they still believe they will reach 0 case thanks to the lockdown!
Impossible.
Vietnam must learn to live with the virus like all the other countries.