![]() Overnight, restaurants were suddenly told they could deliver takeaways after being shut for two months, yet many lack the fresh produce and delivery drivers needed to operate on such short notice. Medical workers collecting test samples from residents walk past in Ho Chi Minh City. Food supply is affecting the whole city, and although new rules this week allowed shippers to deliver orders of fresh food, stores are overwhelmed, and deliveries are taking days to arrive (if they even do). If you’ve never Googled “gourd dessert recipe”, I envy you. I received mine last week and was impressed with the number of veggies, although surprised at just how many types of random greens and gourds were in the package. While most of the lockdown restrictions are understandable – and necessary – others are hard to comprehend Residents aren’t even allowed to leave their homes for food – instead, the military is liaising with local ward unions to deliver weekly groceries. While certain levels of restrictions have been in place since the end of May, the latest directive is extreme. Vaccine supplies are arriving in dribs and drabs, and the city has been under a total lockdown since August 23rd. I’m one of them, yet my digital information hasn’t been updated with my vaccination proof, and I’ve no idea when I’ll get my second jab. The city started a somewhat chaotic vaccine rollout this summer and now has more than 80 per cent of its nine million population vaccinated with at least one shot. Most of the vaccines have gone to the hotspot, Ho Chi Minh, which accounts for 80 per cent of deaths and half the infections. Even after an intensified vaccination schedule, just 3.5 per cent of the population are fully vaccinated and 16.5 per cent have one shot. Vietnam has struggled with its vaccine rollout, relying on the Covax scheme and donations from other countries. How did things change so drastically in just a few months? Mostly, a combination of the highly transmissible Delta variant and an unvaccinated population of 98 million people. As of September 9th, there are now 551,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with 13,701 deaths. Up until April this year, Vietnam recorded just 5,400 total Covid-19 cases and 35 deaths. Thanks to a strict entry and quarantine process, Vietnam had largely kept coronavirus at bay. When I arrived back to Ho Chi Minh in January, after being away for almost a year, I went from 15 days of mandated hotel quarantine to a “normal” life of rooftop bars and crowded streets. The city is currently under one of the world's strictest lockdowns as Vietnam battles an unprecedented breakout of Covid-19. As the pandemic continues to wreak havoc in southeast Asia, homes in Ho Chi Minh with a coronavirus positive person isolating inside are taped off as a sign to keep your distance. Red – the colour usually associated in Vietnam with luck – now wraps doors instead of presents.
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