Vietnamese students tell stories of 'living with Omicron'

 Vietnamese students tell stories of 'living with Omicron'

On the morning of January 11, Ho Ngoc Quang, a third year chemical engineering student, Drexel University, USA woke up with a feeling of dry throat and sore throat.

Two days ago, Quang and a group of 12 Vietnamese international students had dinner at a restaurant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thinking he might have contracted Covid-19, Quang went online to find out and found that he was experiencing signs of the disease caused by Omicron. The next day, Quang had a fever of over 38.5 degrees, his body was cold, his head was dizzy and he couldn't stand.

According to statistics from Johns Hopkins University, within just a week to January 10, the average number of confirmed Covid cases per day in the US was 714,000 cases, an increase of 74.3% compared to the previous week. On January 10 alone, the country recorded 1.13 million new cases. The US is currently the country with the highest number of daily Covid cases in the world. The state of Pennsylvania, where Quang lives, has more than 30,000 new cases, while the city of Philadelphia 3,000 people are infected every day.

Quang visited the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space museum in New York at the end of December 2021. Photo: Character provided

Quang visited the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York at the end of December 2021. Photo: Character provided

Quang's group of friends, 8 people announced that they were positive for Covid-19, the rest have not been tested, including Quang. All had fever, sore throat, worse - vomiting. Quang knew for sure he was sick.

"Many friends panicked when they heard they had Covid-19 but then calmed down because they all had at least two injections. Moreover, Omicron's symptoms were also milder, so we encouraged each other not to be too worried," Quang said.

Sharing a house with four foreign friends, Quang self-isolates in his room, only going out to cook at night, when everyone is asleep. In the early days, Quang could not sleep because of a headache and was always cold. At times of high fever, Quang tries to drink a lot of filtered water, C effervescent. To make each day not boring, I avoid reading negative news about translation, only reading my favorite professional books and watching movies.

After two days, Quang had no fever and five days had no symptoms of sore throat and runny nose. Quang's group of friends also gradually recovered from the disease. "Omicron has a low risk of developing serious symptoms so I feel fine, just taking good care of myself will get through it," Quang said.

The male student said that the high number of cases made the hospital overloaded, but people here were not worried and considered it like seasonal flu. They are encouraged to report when they are sick, but no medical staff will come to their homes.

Returning to the US from September 2021 after two reservations, Quang brought a lot of medicine, actively injects the third vaccine and always bought enough food for two weeks to limit going out. After going to school for three months, Optics' school went online two weeks ago. From January 17, the school returned to the live format. Students are required to have vaccines and wear masks when coming to school. Quang is now applying to study online until he has a negative test result.

Like the US, Britain witnessed an outbreak of a new strain. The UK is among the 5 countries with the highest number of infections in the world, with over 200,000 new cases daily. The stressful epidemic causes international students to adapt to a new normal life and change many habits.

Ta Duc Duy, a student at Bellerbys College London, always has a mask and hand sanitizer. Every day, Duy's familiar schedule is to take the train and bus for an hour to school and then return to the apartment with his sister. When I don't go out and gather with friends, I always wash my hands with soap and change my clothes every time I go out.

No matter how careful I was, I still got sick. On the evening of January 13, before going to bed, Duy saw that he was hot and dizzy. The next morning I did a quick test, I got a positive result.

"I called the school to inform. The school asked who I had been in contact with, what period of study and who to sit next to to trace, then instructed to self-isolate," Duy said.

After four days of experiencing symptoms of headache, shortness of breath, sore throat and fever, Duy is now better. I will test again to return to school if the results are negative.

The Omicron variant was first detected in Botswana on 11/11 and was reported by South Africa to the World Health Organization (WHO) on November 24. To date, the newly evaluated strain Omicron causes less severe symptoms than Delta, but has a rapid spread. The US and UK are the countries heavily affected by this mutation, causing many schools here to fall into a state of continuous opening and closing. The study and activities of students - students, including Vietnamese international students, are therefore affected.