Via The New York Times: Mysterious Coronavirus Outbreak Catches Vietnam by Surprise. Excerpt:
With no clarity as to the source of the outbreak in Danang, which has infected at least 26 people there, medical authorities were racing to figure out how cases were proliferating in a supposedly closed country.
The health ministry said that the strain of virus detected in Danang is different from ones that circulated during the earlier round of local transmission.
“This is imported,” said Professor Nga, the public health expert at Quang Trung University. “A virus cannot survive for three months in a community without causing illness.”
Professor Nga said he thought the virus likely arrived in Vietnam in late June or early July.
In Danang, the police fanned out across the city, trying to locate outsiders who might have brought the virus with them. On Saturday, the police apprehended nine Chinese nationals who had sneaked into Vietnam illegally, local authorities said. Dozens more Chinese who had entered the country illegally were nabbed earlier this month in central Vietnam. A Chinese man, who the police said had set up an illegal immigration network, was arrested on Monday.
The Chinese who were caught were either put in quarantine camps or isolated in hospitals, the police said.
Across Vietnam, hospitals were getting beds ready to handle a rise in cases. Professor Nga noted that ventilators and other equipment needed in the fight against the coronavirus are limited in Vietnam.
People, he said, had become complacent.
“After 100 days with no outbreaks, people weren’t taking precautions anymore,” Professor Nga said. “They weren’t wearing masks or cleaning their hand with soap. People were going to crowded places.”
