Staying put until further notice

While the whole world was still struggling with Covid-19 here in Da Nang we felt relatively safe. There was no new case registered in Vietnam for 100 days and everything went back to normal. Streets were full of people and food stalls. Every weekend we’ve seen full busses of local tourists dropped to hotels around our building. Life went on as if nothing happened. Only the news from Europe and USA reminded us that the virus threat is still here. This and one more thing.

Closed borders everywhere

We started to look for a new place, a new country where we could go and couldn’t find any country in SEA with open borders. Except one – Cambodia, but they ask $3000 deposit for potential hospital fees. After our last experience in Cambodia, it was out of the table anyway. We were afraid that our visa here expires soon and we have no other option but to go back home. But where is home?

Our problem was suddenly solved on 26th July when local newspapers mentioned 2 new coronavirus cases in Da Nang. On 27th Da Nang went back to a strict quarantine for 2 weeks. In the meantime, over 400 new cases were recorded and 16 people died of covid-19. All new cases were linked to the Da Nang outbreak. I know that 16 deaths may not sound that bad comparing to other countries but Vietnam was proud to have no deaths due to covid-19 with the first wave so this time having even such small number it is a big deal for them.

Second Covid-19 wave

700 local tourists were transported back home within the first two days of the outbreak. Nobody knows where the virus came from since the country has been closed to foreign tourists since March. People here blame it on illegal Chinese immigrants, but I don’t think we will ever know the truth. Local laboratories claim this is a different strain of the virus, it’s more contagious than before. They didn’t confirm that but to me, it looks like it’s also more deadly this time. Currently, quarantine here has been extended until further notice. All are required to stay home and leave only for food, medicine, emergency. Da Nang government underlined that strict social distancing is crucial to stop the virus.

“The importance should be attached to ensuring that each family isolates itself from other families, one village from other villages, one commune from other communes, and one district from other districts.”

By DA NANG Today

Our plans

That means – we’re not going anywhere anytime soon. We are still not sure what is going to happen with our visa that expires soon, or where can we go next but we feel relatively safe here and don’t mind to stay longer, even much longer, but we also don’t want to overstay and pay fees for that.

For now, we stay put and take a lot of sunset pictures from our balcony. Not much else we can do anyway.