Ngoc Hoa said that the number of tourists buying tours to the island, Vinpearl Land or destinations around the central coastal city all skyrocketed during the holiday of April 30. He witnessed some people waiting for hours and still could not buy tickets to the tourist area, had to change to explore the inner city. Tourists queue in a long line at Vinpearl Land Nha Trang tourist area. Photo: Pham Ngoc Hoa. Similar to Phu Quoc (Kien Giang), Da Lat (Lam Dong) or Vung Tau (Ba Ria – Vung Tau), overcrowding of tourists also occurs in the coastal city of Nha Trang. Check-in photos are constantly being updated on social networks, attracting mixed opinions. Manh Quan account said: “Looking at this picture, I feel bewildered. I just went to Nha Trang from April 27 and came back yesterday, it’s wise to travel before the holiday, not in long queues”. Hoang Tuan Anh left a comment: “The epidemic is stressful like this, but many people gather in one point, if someone ‘forgets’ to wear a mask, it will be easy.” Tourists focus on Nha Trang Tourist Wharf to go on a tour to visit the sea and islands. Photo: Vinh Max. Meanwhile, many people believe that without a ban, tourists are not at fault when choosing to go out during the holidays. Tea member Bonny said that when looking at the photos, it is a good thing to see that all tourists are wearing masks, consciously limiting the spread of disease in the community. The flow of people from Ho Chi Minh City to the provinces, leading to traffic jams, has been reported by people since the morning of April 30. Readers Vinh Max started at 6:30 pm on April 29 in Ho Chi Minh City. At 6 am the next morning, he arrived in Phan Ri Cua town (Binh Thuan). “Due to the long holiday, people flocked to their hometowns to travel, so the traffic was stuck in Dong Nai area. I planned to go to the island soon but broke the plan because I couldn’t move,” this passenger said. On May 1, Nha Trang Tourist Wharf, where tickets are bought to visit places such as Mun island, Tranh beach, Coral bay, Tam island, etc., was also filled with people waiting to go to the island. Nha Trang has the advantage of a beach resort and is a safe destination chosen by many people. Previously, Khanh Hoa Tourism Department predicted that there would be about 70,000 tourists during the April 30 holiday. Tourists mainly stay in Nha Trang city and Bai Dai area (Cam Lam district).

But these days, traffic is sparse, with only occasional trucks or motorbikes passing by. The once noisy atmosphere no longer appeared. Unpleasant silence crept across India as the COVID-19 crisis erupted, partly due to local closures of factories, and partly because many people here fear infection. Contrary to that quiet, fighting activities are increasingly explosive: ambulances race to the next patient, ordinary people frantically criss-crossing the city in search of medicine, oxygen, and beds sick. After a year of relative calm, the country of nearly 1.4 billion people is grappling with a powerful last-minute storm. With the number of new cases still exceeding 300,000 per day, India regularly accounts for around 50% of all new cases worldwide. Vijayawada International Airport was bustling with only a handful of passengers, and flights were also few. (Photo: ST) Problems from tests At the end of April, in the corner of the Artemis hospital compound in Gurgaon, a man repeatedly fell and had to be helped by those around him as he stood in line waiting for an RT-PCR test. The man was seated in a chair but collapsed. He was brought to the front of the queue but was too weak to last long. As hospital staff led the man toward the main building, he resisted, pointing to an elderly man sitting in the corner. Turns out this person came here not to do an RT-PCR test for himself but for his father. Meanwhile, at the front, the doctor in charge, overwhelmed by the number of samples to be taken, shouted at a patient for breaking in. Most people in line will wait at least two hours to be checked in. And it takes at least 48 hours to get results. Crowds of testing people create congestion at facilities. (Photo: ST) Unlike the first wave that affected the elderly, the second wave made many young people sick. Middle-aged parents have to bring children with coughs and fevers to testing centers. Prolonged delays have unfortunate consequences. Without quick and reliable test results, people won’t be able to get the care they need and could end up passing the virus on to many others. Mr. Claudien Jacob understood the situation all too well. He lost his 71-year-old mother on April 29 at home in Bangalore, when she was bedridden. She was hot with fever and her oxygen saturation level gradually decreased. By the time they were able to have a lab technician come to their home to collect an RT-PCR sample, other household members had also developed typical symptoms of COVID-19. But without the test, she wouldn’t have a hospital bed. On April 29, at 7 a.m., she took her last breath. At 7:30 a.m., Mr. Jacob’s phone beeped with her test result: positive. He has yet to receive his test results. “I’m dead tired, but no one else is doing this, so I went to the cemetery. I still haven’t had time to feel that my mother is dead.” A grieving family sends off a loved one who died of COVID-19 while keeping their distance. (Photo: ST) In March 2020, during the first pandemic outbreak, India instituted a strict 21-day lockdown. While bad for the economy, this also helps expand infrastructure from hospital beds to testing facilities. The number of tests has been increased from less than 100 to more than 1.4 million per day. The number of labs doing testing has also increased from 14 at the beginning of last year to more than 2,400 this year. But that’s still not enough. Survival battle Now, it’s common for Indians to see people rushing to find the basic necessities that were always assumed hospitals would have. Never before have citizens had to hunt for oxygen as often as they do now. Looking out the window, it’s not difficult to see someone rushing with an oxygen tank on the car to bring to the patient. Hospitalization – is a matter of will, wealth, relationships and of course luck. Indians now joke that before the pandemic, people panicked when a loved one was taken to the hospital’s intensive care unit, but now they’re happy. The journey to getting a bed is like a competitive sport. Common scene on Indian streets. (Photo: ST) Survival is not easy either. People safe from COVID-19 and their families talk about loneliness and stress. Families are not allowed to see patients in COVID-19 wards or intensive care units. In absolute isolation, all one could hear was the single, heavy breathing. But anyway, they are still considered “lucky” people. Coping with trauma Outside the Old Seemapuri crematorium in Delhi, Jitender Singh Shunty, founder of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sewa Dal – a non-profit organization – drinks his first tea at 2pm. He said he felt like fainting and had to rest despite having very little time. Mr. Shunty helped cremate unclaimed bodies and dispose of the ashes in the Hindu tradition, receiving many calls. “Yes, we will come and prepare for the funeral. Don’t worry”, he told a desperate person on the phone. He received more than 400 calls a day, and lived in the car for days. He has a fleet of 18 ambulances and has lost one driver, Arif Khan, to the pandemic. These two were rejected by 4 hospitals in one day. (Photo: ST) Ordinary men and women have become superheroes during the pandemic. A driver in Bhopal sells his wife’s jewelry to convert the car into a makeshift ambulance. Another person in Mumbai sells his SUV for 2.2 million rupees to buy oxygen tanks for everyone. In Kerala, an elderly man donated almost all of his savings of Rs 200,000 to COVID-19 relief efforts. A nursing mother in Bangalore donates breast milk to a premature baby whose mother has died from the epidemic. And it is these moments that are a temporary respite from the horror that is unfolding. A nurse cares for a child who has recently recovered from COVID-19. (Photo: ST)

Mr. Tran Minh Hieu, a local resident, said from morning to 15 pm, many destinations in the city center such as Lam Vien square, Da Lat market roundabout, the road around Xuan Huong Lake was deserted, the road was clear. . “Due to the prolonged traffic jam at Bao Loc pass, many people have not come to Dalat,” said Hieu. The image of deserted Dalat center has been shared a lot on tourist groups. Photo: Tran Minh Hieu. In an article sharing pictures of Da Lat without people, many readers said that they were stuck in Bao Loc, the trip schedule was changed. Ms. Hoa (Ho Chi Minh City) said that the check-in time for the homestay booked in Da Lat was 12 o’clock, but by 14 o’clock she still hadn’t come out of Bao Loc pass. Ms. Trang May (Ho Chi Minh City) shared: “I plan to go to Da Lat for the holidays. At 5:30, I started to ride a motorbike from Suoi Tien and it was nearly 4:00 pm to arrive in Dalat, I was late to check- 4 hours printing room “. Many people are still stuck at the pass so the city center is quite deserted, Trang added. Some accommodation places in Da Lat also recorded late check-in due to traffic jams. Homestay Cu Tren Cay shared: “At 5:00 pm, my homestay still has 5-6 rooms without guests coming to check-in. Because of a force majeure situation, my side helps keep the room for late guests”. Contrary to the sparse image in the city center, at the foot of Bao Loc Pass, congestion still persists for tens of kilometers. As noted by the reporter Zing , from 0:00 on April 30, the flow of cars started to stagnate. At noon, the more vehicles poured in. At 14 o’clock, the car flows in tandem, moving slowly on the Bao Loc Pass.

According to PV VTC News, from 6 a.m. on April 14 (March 3 of lunar calendar), many people were present at some places of making floating cakes, vegetarian cakes to buy cakes for the ceremony.

At Ngo Thi Nham street, a long line of people squeezed their feet to buy floating cakes and vegetarian cakes.

Many people cry to heaven because they have been waiting for an hour but still have not been able to buy the cake.

Sharing with PV, the owner of a floating cake shop on Ngo Thi Nham street said: “The number of visitors this year is higher than last year. We have to constantly add flour and mold to serve the customers buying ”.

“To serve the needs of customers, the store has prepared about 90kg of cake flour. Right from last night, the store has soaked cake dough. At 3 am, the store staff gets up early to do the dough, ready to serve every stage to serve customers ”, said the store owner.

Chen feet in the sea of ​​people waiting to buy floating cakes, vegetarian cakes on the real Korean New Year, Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung (in Ngo Thi Nham street, Hanoi) said: “I wait in line here for about 30-40 minutes. This year, I bought 2 kinds of whole vegetarian cakes. In my opinion, buying floating cakes, vegetarian cakes is a beautiful custom of my country. On this day, my family often eat the two types of cakes above instead of cooking as usual ”.

Glad to be able to buy floating cakes to worship the family, Ms. Thoa (in Cau Giay district, Hanoi) shared: “Every year, I come here to buy floating cakes and vegetarian cakes for my family every year. This year does not wait as long as every year “.

Floating cakes at stores cost about 15,000 VND / plate, vegetarian cakes 20,000 VND / bowl. Most of the stores sell both cooked cakes and pastries to customers who buy them to make them themselves.

Beautiful five-color floating cake attracts the attention of many customers.

However, the white floating cake is still the type most customers choose to buy.

On this day, many families also buy sugar, green beans, glutinous rice flour, sesame … to make their own floating cakes, vegetarian cakes to offer to their ancestors.

The Vietnamese custom of offering floating cakes and vegetarian cakes reminds the story of “wrapping a hundred eggs of Au Co’s mother”. Floating cake represents 50 eggs hatched into 50 children to the forest following their mother. Vegetarian cake represents 50 eggs that hatch into 50 children following their father into the sea.

Therefore, the real Korean New Year of the Vietnamese people mainly means towards the origin, commemorating the merits of the dead.

According to cultural experts, when March comes, the weather starts to heat up, preparing to turn into summer. Vietnamese people in the past have created floating cakes, vegetarian cakes which are cool and cool dishes. This dish is sweet, very suitable for hot days.

The use of floating cakes, vegetarian cakes to worship also brings many good meanings, showing the wet rice culture. Both cakes are made from fragrant glutinous rice flour, the fruits of hard work can be offered to grandparents and ancestors.