Vietnam’s Da Nang Under Lockdown Following Fresh Covid-19 Cases

HANOI, KOMPAS.com - Vietnam has placed its third-largest city of Da Nang under lockdown after detecting Covid-19 cases in a hospital.

The city of Da Nang has been placed under two weeks of lockdown following 15 Covid-19 cases discovered at a hospital, according to the government.

Thousands of Vietnam’s domestic tourists in the popular beach destination were forced to cancel their summer holidays early.

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Public transport into and out of Da Nang has also been canceled.

The imposition of lockdown in the city throws a major curveball to Da Nang’s tourism industry.

It has only been revived in end of April following a lower trend in the number of Covid-19 cases.

Hotel guests prematurely ended their stays and canceled upcoming trips upon the news of the first case, one hotelier said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

“Our hotel is now empty,” the hotelier said. “But we had to help our guests to leave the city when they still had the opportunity yesterday.”

Da Nang beaches, which host some 50,000 people daily, are now closed. Only security personnel were seen on the beach Tuesday as they patrolled to ensure no one was gathering.

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Authorities estimated several thousand people would be stranded by the transportation shutdown and asked hotels to shelter them.

“We did not want to rush to the airport to leave the city because of the risk of being in a crowded place. So we are now stuck here,” said Lien Nguyen, who is traveling with her family of four for their summer vacation.

“But it is not a bad place to get stranded for two weeks,” she said.

On Sunday, the government ordered unessential businesses to close and required people to practice social distancing in the city of 1.1 million population.

All 15 cases in the new outbreak are patients and health workers at Da Nang hospital.

With the new infections, Vietnam has reported 431 cases of Covid-19 without a death. 

(Writer: Hau Dinh) 

Source: https://apnews.com/8fe19e2abd86bab40fa739964a3db333