Despite a long border with China and limited resources, the Southeast Asian country, with a population of 97 million people, has reported merely 431 cases of COVID-19 so far and not a single death.

As of July 27, Vietnam has recorded 431 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 365 recovered, and no fatalities. Despite limited clinical resources and poor economic conditions, the Southeast Asian country has managed to respond to the coronavirus outbreak with immediacy, effectiveness, and transparency.

Since January 23, when Vietnam’s first case of COVID-19 – a man who travelled from Wuhan to visit his son in Ho Chi Minh City – was confirmed, the government was prompt to get its emergency plan into action. On February 1, the Prime Minister officially declared COVID-19 an epidemic. As the first country to be cleared of the SARS outbreak in 2003, Vietnam had the experience to take appropriate actions during the current pandemic and get it under control.

There are about eight doctors for every 10,000 people in the country that houses 97 million people. The authorities knew that the medical system will be overwhelmed by even mild spread of the virus. The focus had to be on early prevention and timely treatment.

Although Vietnam has not been in a position to conduct mass testing programs, it has so far managed to conduct around 2,75,000 COVID-19 tests. All COVID-19 patients, including the asymptomatic cases, were hospitalised.

On March 6, the second wave of cases was reported, due to a large number of people travelling from European countries, the UK, and the US. Most of the returning Vietnamese were students, tourists, or business travellers; they tended to be younger and healthier. However, the government didn’t take any chances and arranged for mandatory 14-day quarantine at government-funded and operated facilities for all the new arrivals.

After international travel was suspended, on April 1, Vietnam implemented a nationwide lockdown for 15 days. The effective use of apps to track positive and suspected cases helped in lowering the risk of community transmission. On July 22, though, Vietnam observed its highest single-day peak in COVID-19 cases.

The country had gone more than three months without new cases from the local transmission; all recent cases were from people who had been infected abroad and later arrived in the country. The overall number of imported cases has remained larger than locally transmitted cases.

The Southeast Asian country locked down its third-largest city for two weeks after the government confirmed community infection cases on July 27, all in or around Da Nang. Hanoi, the country’s capital city, is the most-affected city with 121 confirmed cases.

Even if the next pandemic wave hits Vietnam, experts are of the opinion that the country is in a position to deal with the challenge effectively as it has done over the last few months.

Author

Bhargavi Saikia

Bhargavi works as a Data Analyst at HealthLEADS, specialising in data cleaning, analysis and visualisation. With a keen eye for patterns and a penchant for clarity, Bhargavi brings data to life, bridging the gap between raw data and storytelling.
View all posts