After the discovery of like 2 or 3 new Covid cases in Da Nang during the holiday weekend that saw enough people flock to the city for them to drag out that awful paragliding option that plagues the view of every shitty beach destination in the world, the government locked what I believe to be the entire city down.
This now means that we have to wear masks to go outdoors, all public areas are closed, and restaurants are only allowed to do takeout and delivery.
Now before anyone starts to think this is terrible please know that we have had none of this since August or so of last year. We have had near absolute freedom in the middle time there and I feel bad for people I know elsewhere that have been subjected to this all the time for more than a year. At the moment it isn't as bad as it sounds it is just kind of a bummer that we can't hang out with friends (we still do, but just on our own rooftops as I detailed in my last post.)
Here are some photos of the ghost town that the area of Da Nang that I live in has become.
The entire beach has been marked off with police tape and you can see they really went out of their way to nail the point home by putting the "do not cross" tape all over the communal exercise equipment on the boardwalk. At night, it is kind of funny to see that some extremely dedicated exercise types are out there using the equipment in the dark - which I think is a very stupid thing for them to do because this is a heavily trafficked area and while I haven't heard of it actually happening to anyone (yet) the fines for violating Covid protocol is pretty damn steep.
There are also a few surfers that make their way out on the waves anyway, which honestly is something I think should be allowed because you are so far away from another person while you are out there. I suppose they are just thinking that if they give the people and inch, they will take a mile.
This popular street near the beach is normally so filled with people, cars, and motorbikes that it is difficult to cross the street safely. I walked down this street unimpeded for a long way. I never even saw another person unless they were sitting in a chair outside of their business / home. Then when I got to the corner I saw one of the quarantined hotels.
I didn't want to get too close because the officials that watch these places are (I think) wannabe police and they utilize any opportunity to show their "power" and shout at you. This hotel is currently housing people who have potentially been exposed to Covid and I feel bad for them because even though there are rumors that the rest of the city's lockdown is only going to last another week, these folks are going to have to stay there an additional week even if they test negative for Covid multiple times.
This is all happening because one of the latest cases, from what I have heard, tested negative for Covid 2 or 3 times and then on a later test, tested positive despite being in quarantine the entire time. This of course raises the issue of whether or not the PCR test actually works. I remember reading that the person who invented the test said that it shouldn't be used for this but he mysteriously died after being continually critical of using the test he designed and even called out Fauci for using the test to make pharmaceutical companies and their investors a lot of money. That's a topic for someone a lot more interested in researching something they can't do anything about than I am though.
So Da Nang has been enjoying a lot more freedom from Covid oppression than a lot of the rest of the world for most of the time that Covid has been in the news. We'll have to wait and see if things improve after the proposed 1 more week of lockdown. In the meantime we are still able to go where we want as long as we have a mask on and even though it is very very hot right now, that is something I can deal with for a week, even though I disagree with it.