One week after I arrived in Da Nang, Vietnam, the situation in China with the coronavirus just exploded. At this time, the number of people affected and deaths were increasing and also the power of spreading of the virus started to be known. After somedays, Vietnam closes the border with China.
I’m a digital nomad and I’ve been living this lifestyle since 2017. I arrive in Vietnam with plans to stay here for the next three months.... When the situation in China started to get worse, I was looking for some accommodation in Da Nang. At this time, the real state agency told me that the government issued some kind of regulation, where accommodation to people with Chinese passports should be denied. I couldn’t check the information itself since language is always a barrier, however, I taught it was very stupid of them to make that. Once they let these people in, putting them out wouldn’t solve the problem with coronavirus….
Despite these rumors, life was pretty normal. Markets were open, people were working and the only thing I saw that was different was the masks everywhere, in people’s faces and also abandoned on the streets as trash!
After some weeks, the situation seems to be normal again. No cases, until some girl arrives in the hospital and the test was positive for Covid-19. Again, more masks around… Then some tourists from Italy and the UK were also blamed to bring the virus back. Places like restaurants and hotels were sealed and put on quarantine. After this, Vietnam closes the borders to Europe and any flight coming from it is allowed to land in the country. This situation remains until now. The government turns masks obligatory now in public places.
I saw some posts on Facebook groups of people who received visits from authorities to check visas and temperatures. One friend also had his rental contract canceled and the justification was the coronavirus.
Unfortunately, until this moment, I heard more about xenophobia cases than people really sick. With me, nothing happened yet. Sometimes people are asking me to put a mask or they ask me where I am from… which is weird and sad!
The positive side
Let’s make clear that coronavirus is not lethal and just a few cases have critical medical issues or death. I’m not saying that these cases and also deaths are not important. However, comparing with another virus, the corona is far away to be the worst.
It’s very hard to measure the situation in Vietnam, especially because I don’t speak the language. So, these are only my impressions. I think on the positive side that no one freaks out here with the virus. Despite some schools and universities are closed, all this craziness of storing food and toilet paper is simply not a reality here! So, in this way, for me, Vietnam is facing the problem in a very objective way of trying to isolate the cases and solve them without panic everyone.
Vietnamese people also made a music to stimulate people to wash their hands more. The music becomes a hit on TikTok and I laugh a lot with this! I think good humor is necessary and increases the capacity of your immune system... So, yes, please laugh, have fun and wash your hands!
The negative side
This beautiful study shows all the data regarding the virus and, based on numbers, panic and fear are a big problem now for a huge part of the worldwide population. Also, around the world, the capacity of the health system to treat a pandemic is put on check. Even developed countries seem to be not prepared to deal with a big number of cases, especially countries where there is a big amount of elderly people.
Here in Vietnam, however, measures like social distance or interruption of the activities were not taken from the beginning and the curve didn't explode here anyway, which in my opinion is pretty curious... The borders of China were closed, true, however, life was going pretty normal, with a lot of uncertainty but normal.
Unfortunately, cases of xenophobia started to appear little by little. The borders are still close and there is no perspective to be opened. Cases involving people who are legally inside the country, like me, are also unknown. Until this moment, seems that renewing the visa can be possible, however, quite more expensive than before…
One of the things that hurt me most in this story was seeing masks thrown into the sea and around the city as trash after the fear goes away. See stuff like that makes me think what kind of species are human beings… We are so fucking selfish, that may be a virus should kill us using our own ignorance to do that. Any other species on this planet is so destructive. Now that the masks are obligatory, I can imagine the number of trash will double very soon.
Despite the situation in Vietnam, for me, coronavirus shows us the humanity is sick. The virus is just the diagnosis.