Canadian shares unforgettable experience in Vietnam since onset of COVID-19

Pinksen, an artist from the small town of Wild Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada,, has been painting and drawing portraits for the last five years. She painted this portrait of a security guard at a local bank. (Photo: Sabrina Pinksen)

Hanoi – Canadian-based CBC News has recently published a story about Sabrina Pinksen, a woman from the small town of Wild Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), Canada, who finds her experience living in Vietnam on the outset of COVID-19 unforgettable.

Pinksen lived in the Republic of Korea before, at the end of 2017, moving to Hanoi in a country of 90 million that she said is geographically smaller than NL.

Despite the vast difference in population, both of Pinksen's homes have one thing in common: their low infection rates, CBC News reported.

Even with Hanoi's high population density, said Pinksen, Vietnam has largely been able to keep its COVID-19 numbers low by focusing on community transmission and contact tracing. She credited Vietnam's low COVID-19 caseload to its swift response.

Vietnam closed the border with China almost immediately at the start of the pandemic, Pinksen said, noting that the country also imposed nationwide social distancing order for three weeks in April.

She said the country has been extremely proactive in its handling of the pandemic. When it comes to daily life in Hanoi, Pinksen said, it's like COVID-19 doesn't exist.

A second wave struck in July, in the central city of Da Nang and Pinksen happened to be there on vacation.

"I think there were 50,000 people [from Hanoi] that were in Da Nang during that outbreak, and everyone that came back to Hanoi…, they had us tested in a matter of a couple of weeks," she said.

When the pandemic struck, Pinksen recalls feeling uneasy. "It was scary being a foreigner in a country that's not your own and not really knowing what is going on," she said.

Pinksen initially tried to get back to NL, but her plans didn't pan out. As her passport was at Immigration waiting for a visa extension, she couldn’t get on a plane. So she accepted to not go anywhere.

The pandemic has had a positive effect on her work life. Pinksen is employed as an online ESL teacher for a company. Since people are spending more time at home, her skills are more in demand.

Pinksen said she had hoped to be home for the holidays, but that's not going to happen this year.

"I'd like to return in the spring. But … if the situation is the same in the rest of Canada, I don't know why I would trade in the freedom that I have right now to come home," she said.