코로나19로 산산조각난 ‘호치민 드림’‥자전거에 몸 싣고 귀향하는 이들

*아시아엔 해외통신원 기고문의 한글번역본과 원문을 함께 게재합니다.

[아시아엔=란 퐁 베트남 ‘단 트리’ 국제뉴스 부장] 베트남 최대 경제 중심지인 호치민시에서 지난 4월 29일 발생한 지역사회 코로나19 감염 이후 7월 24일 기준 5만명의 신규확진자가 발생하며 대규모 확산세가 이어지고 있다. 상업 중심지인 호치민이 코로나19 최대 진원지로 전락하고 만 것이다.

이와 관련해 호치민시 당국은 국무총리와 보건부장관에 “지역 병원에 더 많은 의료진이 필요하다”고 밝혔으며, 호치민 인민위원회 측도 호치민시 내 전체 의료기관에 의사 1,000여명과 간호사 4,000여명을 지원해 줄 것을 요청했다. 앞서 베트남 전역의 수천 명의 의대생 외에 병원 의료진 2,000여 명이 호치민시로 파견됐지만 급증하는 확진자 수를 감당하기엔 턱없이 부족했다.

7월 22일 호치민시 질병당국은 브리핑에서 “호치민 시는 아직 코로나19 대유행의 정점에 다다르지 않았으며, 앞으로 환자 수도 계속 증가할 것이다. 신규 확진자 수가 80,000명까지 다다를 경우에 대비하고 있다”고 밝혔다.

호치민시는 7월 23일부터 15일간 사회적 거리두기를 가장 높은 단계로 격상할 것이라 발표했지만, 그럼에도 통제되지 않자 이후 더 엄격한 방역 조치를 취할 것을 시사했다. 현재 호치민 시민들은 통근을 제외한 통행에 제약을 받고 있으며, QR코드 등으로 승인 받은 화물운송차만 통행을 허가받고 있다.

결국 길고 엄격한 사회적 거리 두기 조치로 인해 인근 지역에서 온 이주 노동자들은 도시 생활의 꿈을 포기하기 시작했고, 이들 중 대다수는 일자리를 잃어 고향으로 돌아가야만 했다. 일부 지역은 고향으로 돌아갈 수 있게 비행기나 버스 등의 교통수단을 제공하고 있지만, 많은 이들은 당장의 식비나 집세 조차 없어 자전거, 심지어 도보를 이용해 하루라도 빨리 호치민을 떠나고 있다.

닌투안성의 한 검문소에서 본 50대 가장은 후옹씨는 “호치민 인근 동나이성에서 일하다 코로나19로 4개월째 실직 상태다. 집세를 내기 힘들어, 자녀 셋과 호치민에서 1,300km 떨어진 고향집으로 돌아가는 중”이라 말했다. 호치민을 떠난 지 10일 정도 됐다는 이들은 매우 지쳐보였다. 사정을 들은 검문소 직원들은 식량을, 지역 경찰은 기차표를 제공하는 등 이들에게 온정의 손길이 전해졌다.

코로나19로 고통받는 저소득층의 삶을 나타내는 호웅씨 가족 이야기는 소셜미디어를 타고 널리 퍼졌다. 하지만 이는 비단 그녀만의 이야기가 아니었다. 사람들은 당장 먹을 음식을 받기 위해 길거리에 줄을 섰고, 일자리를 잃어 어린 아이를 안고 먼 길을 떠나는 이들이 늘어만 가고 있다.

다행히 호치민시는 최근 코로나19 백신접종 계획 5단계를 추진, 93만회 이상의 백신 접종이 진행되고 있다. 앞서 4단계에서는 200만회 분량의 코로나19 백신을 공급받았으며, 8월 말과 9월 초에는 300만회 분량의 추가 백신이 공급될 것로 예상된다. 번역 민다혜 기자

Vietnam’s economic hub struggles to curb new Covid-19 outbreak
By Phong Lan Deputy Head of the World News Desk Dantri Online Newspaper

Vietnam’s biggest economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City is experiencing the largest ever Covid-19 outbreak which seems hard to curb despite strict preventive measures by local authorities.

Medical staff shortage
Ho Chi Minh City authorities have just asked the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Health to send thousands of doctors and nurses to help treat the rising number of Covid-19 patients at local hospitals.

In an official request sent to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Friday, Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong requested the urgent human resources support of 927 doctors, 4,137 nurses, and technicians. The city also requested 2,000 personnel to help with collecting test samples.

Besides, the city vice chairman, Duong Anh Duc, also sent an urgent document to the Ministry of Health, requesting to mobilise 1,000 doctors and 4,000 nurses from all hospitals in the area to help with the Covid-19 treatment.

The call for help was made as the southern metropolis which is now the country’s largest epicentre is facing worsening development of the pandemic. Earlier nearly 2,000 medical staff from hospitals besides thousands of medical students across Vietnam had been sent to HCM City to help but that seems not enough as the number of patients has continued to soar.
At the meeting held on Thursday, Ho Chi Minh City’s Diseases Control said that the city has not yet reached its peak of the pandemic and the number of patients may continue to rise in the coming days. The city is preparing for a scenario when there are 80,000 patients.

On July 23, the city announced stricter virus preventive measures after the previous 15-day social distancing period that ended the same day was unable to curb the virus from spreading to more areas. Now even travelling inside the quarantine centres and lockdown areas will also be tightened. Fewer services will be allowed to open. Checkpoints leading into HCM City will only clear business vehicles, buses carrying people to their hometowns, and transportation trucks with approved QR codes.

Migrant workers fleeing
The long and strict social distancing measures has made many people, mostly migrant workers coming from neighbouring localities, temporarily give up on their urban dreams. Thousands of people have decided to leave the city for their hometown after losing their jobs due to the outbreak.

While some localities have tried to arrange planes and buses for their residents to return from Ho Chi Minh City, many people just could not wait but want to flee the city as soon as possible even by walking or riding their bikes on long distance when they had no money left to pay for daily food or rent.

On July 20, a woman and her three children were found cycling over 1,300 kilometres home from Ho Chi Minh City after losing their jobs and running out of money due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The woman, Nguyen Thi Huong, 50, said that she and her three children aged 30, 28 and 12 left home to work for a company in Ho Chi Minh City’s neighbouring province of Dong Nai Province and have been unemployed for four months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We have run out of money and can’t pay our rent,” she said. “We decided to return home in the central province of Nghe An, which is some 1,300 kilometres away on our two bikes.”

The four had cycled for 10 days before being found exhausted at a Covid-19 checkpoint in Ninh Thuan Province.

Some staff at the checkpoint gave them food and drinks after hearing about their situation. Local police also support them with train tickets.

Huong’s stories are among many that have been much shared on local social websites about the painful impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the life of low-income people. Some other people were even found waiting for donated foods on the streets or walking long way home carrying their small children after losing their jobs and running out of money.

Hopes coming from large-scale vaccination
While many passenger flights to the city’s Tan Son Nhat Airport have been suspended, more cargo flights transporting medical equipment and vaccines have been prioritised.

On July 22, HCM City began the fifth phase of its large-scale COVID-19 vaccination campaign which is scheduled to run two weeks with more than 930,000 vaccine doses to be conducted.

During this phase, priority will be given to people with underlying health conditions, those aged above 65, the poor, the vulnerable, medical and other frontline workers.

In the four previous phases, the city was supplied with two million doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the Ministry of Health and expects to get three million more doses in late August and early September.

The Coronavirus resurged in Ho Chi Minh City on April 29 following the detection of a community infection. It has then spread quickly and by July 24 over 50,000 cases have been documented.