For those of you that do not live over here you might not know much about what Hoi An is even though you may have heard about Da Nang. The two cities sometimes get lumped into the same category since they are essentially the same city as there is civilization and commerce all the way between the two areas. Other than the fact that they are 20 km apart, if you were visiting here it would not be evident that you have left one of them and entered the other. There was probably a time when there was a lot of farmland between the two but those times are long past. They are, for the most part, essentially the same city.
Because of this proximity and the fact that the population of one frequently travels to the other for various reasons, when Da Nang had a resurgence of Covid-19, Hoi An was shut down in the same fashion that Da Nang was. Here we are, a month later after the lockdown and Hoi An has officially reopened as of a few days ago, the 28th of August.
There are only 2 major roads connecting the two places so when a decision was passed down to cut off all travel between the two places in an effort to stop the spread it was pretty easy to pull off. Only goods and essential travel was allowed and both places were shut down for all but "necessary services." This included all most shops including restaurants and bars. Basically you were not meant to be outside of your house unless it was to obtain food or medicine or something else essential. I think this was more difficult for the people in Hoi An because Da Nang has a much higher population and therefore more of the shopping areas. They had to find a way to feed themselves without having access to the large shopping centers that are all based in Da Nang.
Now we are at a situation where that lower population is actually a benefit and all their restrictions were removed and life can carry on as normal. Lockdown persists in Da Nang for an indisclosed period of time until more testing can be performed on the population.
I live in the place that is still locked down but there is meant to be a meeting of officials either today or tomorrow to announce if parts or all of society can be opened back up soon.
The locals are becoming restless and there are stories of situations becoming violent one where the police attempted to take a dog from an owner who was walking the dog, and another where a man was attempting to sell food from his motorbike and was arrested for doing so. When the second thing happened, members of the local area surrounded the police demanding that they let him go. The did let him go but if these stories are true it is very surprising to me that the people here would do this to the police since the population of this area is normally very compliant when it comes to the orders passed down by police. I think the people sympathize with the poor person selling food because this man is likely struggling to have enough money to eat after not working for a month.
The good news is that when Hoi An opens, we know it is only a matter of time before their larger neighbor to the north does so. Once I am able to go to restaurants and to the beach I think i will have a greater appreciation for the things that I used to take for granted on a daily basis.