Here is the text of an article from The Guardian newspaper, September 8th 2021, followed by my on the prevailing Covid situation in Vietnam:
‘Hunger was something we read about: lockdown leaves Vietnams poor without food (Vietnam was a Covid success story but the latest lockdown, with people unable to leave the house even for food, is leaving tens of thousands hungry)
When the strictest lockdown to date was imposed in Ho Chi Minh City, Tran Thi Hao*, a factory worker, was told that the government would keep her and her family well fed – but for two months they have eaten little more than rice and fish sauce.
She was put on unpaid leave from her job in July, while her husband, a construction worker, has not worked for months. They are behind on their rent, with another payment due soon.
Im trying to hold on for as long as possible but I dont know what next, she says. I dont know how to put what Im feeling into words. I want to ask why theres been no support.
The government said they would send help to people like me but theres been nothing, she says. Everyone living around me is hanging on by a thread.
Tran is not alone. Vietnams biggest city is under a tough lockdown, with people not allowed to leave the house even for food. Current restrictions could last until 15 September, when the city has proposed resuming economic activity.
Even before the stay at home order on 23 August, Tran, like millions of others, was falling into debt. The government promised to feed everyone and enlisted the military to help deliver supplies to those in need, but vast swaths of the population have received nothing. Last week, Vietnamese media reported that more than 100 people in one district had protested over the lack of help.
Vietnam had been hailed as a global success story in tackling the pandemic. As countries around the world mourned their dead and imposed nationwide lockdowns, the Vietnamese government kept the virus at bay by relying on strict quarantine measures, contact tracing and localised lockdowns. By early May, Vietnam had recorded under 4,000 infections and 35 deaths.
Now, the Delta variant is causing chaos in Ho Chi Minh City and neighbouring provinces. The past month has seen 299,429 new cases and 9,758 deaths in the country. In Ho Chi Minh City, the number of deaths accounts for 4.2%!o(MISSING)f recorded cases; more than 200 people die and 5,000 new cases are reported daily in the city. The neighbouring province of Binh Duong is seeing similar numbers.
As tighter restrictions have been gradually introduced since the beginning of June, it is the poor who have been hit the hardest. Factories and markets were ordered to close, and with them went thousands of jobs. Taxi drivers, street food vendors, factory and construction workers who were already near the poverty line have been unable to make money for months and are trapped in precarious and crowded housing in Covid hotspots.
Official statistics state that million people in Ho Chi Minh City alone have plunged into financial difficulty due to the pandemic.
Civil society organisations are being flooded with tens of thousands of requests for food every day and cannot cope with demand. Food Bank Vietnam, a social enterprise run by Nguyen Tuan Khoi, who also has his own business, is supporting 10,000 people a day. Its website and social media channels get twice or three times as many requests.
Numbers started to increase last month, but they have shot up in the past two weeks, says Nguyen. This pandemic has affected peoples resilience. lockdown has caused disruption to food supply. We, and other charities, are facing difficulties in reaching people in need. The demand is huge.
In his 20 years of charitable work, he has never experienced anything like this. The Vietnamese have been going through the most difficult days in the last few weeks, he says. I have never seen this amount of death and loss, and I thought I never would.
