Via Vietnam Weekly: All Eyes on Ho Chi Minh City. By the terms of the rest of the world, this is a minor flurry. In Vietnam, which has done everything right, it's a disaster. Excerpt:
Ho Chi Minh City’s Luck Runs Out
Let’s get some raw numbers out of the way first: on Monday morning, this ongoing outbreak had accounted for 2,164 cases - a figure that is now 3,295, along with 11 deaths. This brings Vietnam’s case total for the pandemic to 6,356 (3,453 are active), and 46 deaths.
Tuesday alone saw 444 cases announced, obliterating the country’s previous single-day case record, which had already been set and broken several times during this wave.
The big news is the emergence of a new cluster in HCMC yesterday, ending the city’s frankly miraculous general avoidance of this surge (though it’s now clear the virus has been present for some time without detection).
On Wednesday, three members of a local evangelical sect visited a hospital in Binh Thanh District with respiratory conditions. They were isolated and tested, and were positive for COVID-19.
Contact tracing and testing found 33 more cases through Thursday night, all linked to the sect (29 members, seven close contacts), with positive cases spread across 16 districts, including a chef at the Sheraton Hotel downtown. 53% of these people have shown COVID-19 symptoms - which is high.
The group in question is the Revival Ekklesia Mission, with an address in Go Vap District. According to their Facebook page, the mission is “a Christian charismatic congregation in fervent prayers for Revival and Salvation in Jesus Christ’s name for everyone.” It was founded “in the 1990s” by two missionaries named Phuong Van Tan and Vo Xuan Loan.
Numerous locations around town, including the Sheraton, have been isolated, and more of this can be expected as contact tracing expands.
The initial source of this cluster is not currently known, while health officials have said it’s possible that the virus has been present for some time, given the number of positive F1 cases.
This morning, the Mekong Delta province of Long An reported its first case as part of this wave - another employee in the kitchen of the Sheraton.
HCMC’s government has responded by increasing restrictions, with gatherings of more than 10 people banned (previously 20), the shuttering of religious establishments, beauty salons and barbershops shut down, and all restaurants and cafes having to switch to take-away or delivery only. (Previously this had only applied to street-side eateries.) Repatriation flights and charter flights bringing in foreign experts have also been suspended from landing in the city.
This is complicated, to say the least, and case numbers in the city are sure to increase (a bakery and an apartment tower in Thao Dien were blockaded yesterday afternoon in relation to a case, and that’s just in my neighborhood).
Sadly, this is also not surprising: people have been complacent here in HCMC, even with huge numbers being reported from northern provinces, and over 100 restaurants in one district alone have been fined in the last 10 days for breaching COVID-19 restrictions.
