Coronavirus: Vietnam’s Hanoi city barricaded; Malaysia to reopen Langkawi to domestic tourists
- Bamboo poles, ladders and broken chairs form makeshift barricades on Hanoi’s streets as authorities try to slow the spread of coronavirus
- Elsewhere, Moderna said that tainted batches of its Covid-19 vaccine sent to Japan contained stainless steel particles, but they did not pose ‘an undue risk’
Bamboo poles, beer crates, ladders and broken chairs: everyday objects form makeshift barricades on Hanoi’s streets as authorities try to slow the spread of coronavirus.
The city is now divided into tiny segments, with movement between each extremely difficult. “It is like living in a jail,” 72-year-old Hanoi resident Ho Thi Anh said.
All alleys leading to Ho’s home have been blocked, with no one allowed in or out after virus cases were discovered in the area.
Once every three days, her family brings her food – dropping it at the foot of the steel barriers that encircle her neighbourhood. In some parts of the city the barricades are cobbled together by volunteers.
Although Hanoi’s case numbers remain relatively steady – with the city recording between 50 and 100 cases each day – there is huge anxiety over the escalating crisis down south in Ho Chi Minh City.
The commercial hub is reporting thousands of new infections and hundreds of deaths a day, and Hanoi residents fear the same fate for their city. Across the country more than 11,000 people have died.
