Fifteen people flee the epidemic aboard a refrigerated truck

Willing to do anything to escape the Coronavirus. Vietnamese police arrested fifteen people trying to leave the country, hidden in a refrigerated truck. Among them was a seven year old boy. All were looking to escape the Covid-19 epidemic which has hit the country hard since this summer. The bodies of 39 migrants of Vietnamese origin were discovered in a refrigerated truck in October 2019 in England, sparking international outcry.

“We knew it was very dangerous to travel in a closed and refrigerated truck, but we were at a greater risk of being infected with the virus,” said one of the travelers, quoted in the media. When it was intercepted, the truck had already driven tens of kilometers from Dong Nai, an industrial province which has recorded tens of thousands of cases of Covid-19 in recent weeks.

5% of the population is fully vaccinated

Penalized by the slowness of its vaccination campaign, Vietnam, hailed in 2020 as an exemplary country in its fight against the epidemic with its strict policy of quarantine and monitoring of infected people, is experiencing a severe backlash. The country is slowly rolling out its vaccination campaign: just over 5% of the population is fully vaccinated. The authorities have recorded more than 15,000 deaths since the end of July, against only a few dozen last year.

Ho Chi Minh City, the economic heart of the country, is at the heart of the storm and has taken on the appearance of a besieged city. The army has deployed thousands of soldiers and reservists there to enforce restrictions and distribute food bags to residents cloistered in their homes since early July.

The United States and China have offered several million doses and trade agreements have been signed with the American laboratories Pfizer and Moderna, the Swedish-British AstraZeneca and the Chinese Sinovac. Objective: to attempt to inject at least one dose to 70% of the population by April 2022.