Saigonese help each other during the pandemic

The fourth Covid-19 outbreak has posed great challenges for Vietnam and other countries with the highly contagious Delta variant.

Thousands of newly infected cases are reported every day. The country feels the pain of HCM City, where the medical system has become overloaded and there are not enough beds for patients.

More than 6,000 doctors and nurses have left home for HCM City to help fight the pandemic wave. And more medical workers and volunteers have registered to go to the epicenter where they are needed.

Lovely messages between a young couple, both of them physicians, were shared on a social network recently. They tried to outdo one another going to HCM City, though they understood that they were likely to get infected.

People have also related a story about a physician who is fighting against the pandemic at the center of the pandemic, while managing a ‘zero dong vegetable shop’ from a distance to help people in a quarantine zone.

The pandemic is described as a raging wave, but the stories about human love are inspiring. Minh Rau, a farmer, who could earn a profit of several million of dong a day, is giving free vegetables to people in quarantine zones.

Le Dinh Van is one of the people who can feel the human love. Van’s son is seriously ill and has to receive chemotherapy to maintain his life and use oxygen tanks.

While you are staying safe and working from home during social distancing, doctors and nurses are working hard to treat infections and many volunteers are assisting people in quarantine zones.

The father, despite the risk of being fined going out after 6 pm, had to get an oxygen tank to save his son. Soon after his story was published on social networks, Van received calls from people who said they were ready to help. Van said he had never before received so much sympathy from strangers.

F0 cases

L.T, an F0 (confirmed infection) case in HCM City, caught the public attention with his story.

T said he feared that his situation would become serious as there was no relative to take care for him. So he intended to escape the hospital.

However, he changed his mind later, when seeing medical staff and logistics staff working so hard.

“Though I had to quarantine at hospital, I could feel the thorough care from doctors and nurses which was as warm as the care for family members. Fortunately, I gave up the idea. If I had escaped, I might have transmitted the disease to the community,” he said on the day he was discharged from hospital.

A letter from a patient being treated in HCM City has also touched many people. “Where I am treated, you can hear convulsive coughs and the ‘beeping’ sound of ventilators. On the days at hospital, from the bottom of my heart, I feel compassion towards doctors and nurses. They really are tired and have to sacrifice too much for patients. They don’t have time for meals, but they are willing to spend time to soothe patients listening to them and feeding them,” the letter said.

“Doctors are really the last support for patients,” he wrote.

He also advised everyone to strictly observe the Government and Ministry of Health's (MOH) regulations, to help ease the workload on medical workers. Human physical strength is limited, and medical workers have used up most of their strength.

Celebrities in center of pandemic

The images of Quyen Linh, a famous MC, in the rain, carrying rice to quarantine zones, Truong Ngoc Anh preparing hundreds of servings for medical workers, and beauty queen H’hen Nie and MC Dai Nghia shopping for households in quarantine zones have radiated positive energy.

Not afraid of hardships and dangers, they go to every alley to help people.

"Today, I reached the deep alleys of Saigon. The more I went, the more I felt sorry for the fate of people in reduced circumstances. Saigon feels tired. No one could imagine before that Saigon would be so critically ill. I feel deeply pained,” Quyen Linh wrote on his page.

Singer Thai Thuy Linh flew from Hanoi to HCM City to join hands with other volunteers in the fight against Covid-19. Phuong Thanh, Hoang Phi Kha and Miss Vietnam Mai Phuong Thuy are helping medical staff take samples for testing, organizing vaccination campaigns, and preparing meals and giving haircuts.

Thuy said that when she saw doctors and nurses working hard with no break time and getting exhausted because of the workload, she understood why there is a saying ‘doctor is just like a virtuous mother’.

Meanwhile, singer Phuong Thanh said at first she intended to work as a volunteer for only a few days. But she has been working for more than one month and is sure she will be a volunteer when the pandemic ends. 

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