Lễ but no hội
Another New Year - the months rocket by. In fact, it's already past the first full moon of the year, which as you all know is Year of the Metal/GoldRat. Here in Hanoi things have not yet got back into full swing after the Tết break - it officially ended last Monday, but concerns about the coronavirus have kept things quiet. All government
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I think most Lunar New Year celebrations have been pretty subdued around the world, if the festivities haven't been cancelled. We had the big parade in New York yesterday; I didn't attend but I've been in Chinatown the other day and it has definitely been less crowded if not less noisy. There were plenty of people at the temple on New Year's Day despite the rain but the weather didn't help with the celebrations at all.
In the meantime, I've been keeping up with the news in Hong Kong as well, watching their tv news nearly every day to see what's going on over there. My parents were thinking of sending face masks over to my relatives, and some of the stores have decided to increase the prices by ridiculous amounts and is definitely trying to profit over the misery.
I've also been trying to avoid too many large crowds -- I caught a cold in the office the week before and have been trying to keep the coughing to a minimum in public spaces. Most people here are mask-free though I've seen a few people wearing them but they are definitely a tiny minority at the moment. Our roller-coaster weather hasn't helped in keeping people healthy. Colds are going around my office and it's annoying to dress for cold and windy weather one day, and warm and damp the next.
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Yes, I'm watching every day as well, and noting the angle of the graphs, and thinking when the next bulge will come, and so on. :( I feel for the folk on the cruise liners - since a good proportion of cruise passengers are older, and since the disease (like pneumonia) hits older demographics disproportionally... I expect there'll be several deaths within those groups.
I would think sending some masks over might be a good idea, if the mail is pretty quick from NY to HK. Maybe even some hand sanitiser wipes? It couldn't hurt, even if by the time it gets there supplies in HK are fine. :)
Price-gouging has been happening here, too, though it's been sat on pretty decisively with (well-deserved!) fines for the shopkeepers involved. And production of masks is being stepped up, and NGOs and local governments have been pitching in:
https://vietnamnews.vn/society/591966/viet-nam-red-cross-provides-free-masks-and-hand-sanitiser-in-ha-noi.html
But still... there's definitely a sense here that extra masks don't go astray - people are glad to get them.
I guess we're all just emerging from the antibiotics era - I know antibiotics aren't useful for viruses, but overall they've let us all get very comfortable about things that are "going around". Oh well - it was great while it lasted! :(
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