Vietnam authorities have announced that the country has not recorded a single coronavirus-related death since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, the country of 97 million people has just 328 confirmed cases of the world-threatening infection considering its long border with China and the influx of Chinese tourists into it every year.
Coming as a surprise, a low-middle income Vietnam has become a successful example in handling the coronavirus infection among the Asian countries because it has proven to the world the success story of no local infection for more than 40 days compared to other sister countries like South Korea, Taiwan or an advanced Asian city as Hong Kong.
Vietnam lifted the social distance rules in late April, 2020 while managing to maintain its coronavirus death toll at zero.
In another related development, the government of the country has also re-opened businesses and schools with the aim of gradually returning life to normal.
However, skeptics believe that the government’s data on coronavirus seem questionable.
Reacting to this, Guy Thwaites, an infectious-disease doctor working with a Vietnamese government’s hospital, cleared the air that the government’s announced numbers matched the reality on the ground.
This situation further prompted public health experts to closely study how the country tackled the global trend and favourably remains on top of the COVID-19 situation.
According to the experts, the factors responsible for the success story range from government’s swift, early response to prevent its spread, to rigorous contact tracing, quarantining and effective public communication.
Vietnam’s rich experience in dealing with infectious outbreaks, such as the SARS epidemic from 2002 to 2003 and the following avian influenza, has helped the government and the public to better prepare for COVID-19 pandemic.
“The country understands that these precautions need to be taken seriously and complies with guidance from the government on how to prevent the infection from spreading,” Thwaites said.
