Speedy action gives Vietnam edge against virus

After effectively putting the coronavirus in retreat, Vietnam is demonstrating how a country with a quick response can bring the virus under control.

The main reason behind the country's success, said Guy Thwaites, director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City, is the speed of its response.

By Friday Vietnam had been free of local COVID-19 transmission for 44 days after a clean run of months earlier this year.

Even before its first COVID-19 case was reported on Jan 23, the Vietnamese government had already ordered ministries and agencies to be prepared to take drastic measures. Again, in July, when an infection was reported in the city of Da Nang after nearly 100 days of no community transmission, it quickly adopted measures including wide-scale testing and a regional lockdown.

In a list compiled by the World Health Organization in 2000 based on overall health performance, Vietnam placed 160th among 191 member states. Yet the country's response to the pandemic has stood out.

The country has had 1,124 confirmed cases, of which 691 were local transmissions, the official Vietnam News Agency said. Thirty-five deaths have been reported, all older people with severe chronic diseases. Hospitals have discharged 1,030 patients.

Nearly 13,400 people are in quarantine or are being monitored in the country.

Thwaites said: "Vietnam is a relatively resource-limited country and therefore, their response was not a high-tech one, but a very well-organized and rapid response that involved a very good basic principle of epidemiology, which was identifying cases."

The country has been mobilizing a large number of people to do contact-tracing and isolate those who are infected or have had contact with someone carrying the virus.

Another reason for the country's success lies in effective communication with the public, and having managed to control the contagion, it has won greater trust, said Thwaites, adding that Vietnamese have been very compliant with control measures.

Protecting hospitals

"Having an immediate strategy of action not only reduces the number of infected individuals but protects the healthcare system, so people who go to the hospital can be successfully treated," said Maurizio Trevisan, dean of the College of Health Sciences at VinUniversity in Hanoi.

Despite a low testing ratio, at about 12,000 to 13,000 per 10 million people, Trevisan said Vietnam acted swiftly to do targeted testing and therefore make full use of its resources.

Vietnam's successful experience has been widely lauded. In an interview with the local media outlet The Voice of Vietnam, Kidong Park, the WHO representative in Vietnam, praised the government's tough measures since the outbreak began.

Although some countries are trying to replicate methods similar to those Vietnam has used, such as selective lockdowns of high-risk areas, Thwaites said the problem is that they have already missed the window for when the virus can be brought under control.

Trevisan, noting the importance of taking immediate action to control and prevent COVID-19, said most Asian countries have done so, which can be attributed to their experience with the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic of 2002-03.

Vietnam's effective response to the virus will generate a signaling effect to help with its economic recovery, said Adam McCarty, chief economist with the research and consulting firm Mekong Economics in Hanoi.

Vietnam is forecast to be one of the few economies in Asia to grow this year. The government has tried to balance economic growth and pandemic control since the beginning, McCarty said.

"Vietnam's economy is growing because domestic demand is strong due to (the successful control) of COVID-19," he said.