People wait for their turn to have sample taken for RT-PCR testing at the culture, information and sports centre of Hanoi's Dong Da district (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Foreign experts have highly evaluatedVietnam’s response to the recurrent outbreak of COVID-19.
In a BBC article published on August 8, ProfMichael Toole, an epidemiologist and principal research fellow at the BurnetInstitute in Melbourne (Australia), said: “Like in the first wave, Vietnam hasresponded quickly and forcefully” when talking about the sudden resurgence ofthe coronavirus in Da Nang.
This central city sealed itself off fromvisitors and retreated into full lockdown after Patient 416, the first case oflocal infection after 99 days without community transmission in Vietnam.
Each resident is set to be tested for the virus,and a field hospital has been erected as every resource is thrown at slowingthe spread of the disease, according to the article.
Meanwhile, Hanoi has closed down bars andkaraoke parlours as an extra precaution, and several cities, including thecapital and Ho Chi Minh City, have made face masks compulsory again in publicplaces.
Prof Rogier van Doorn, director of the Oxford UniversityClinical Research Unit noted: “What wassuccessful before is being done again. I'm again impressed.”
Dr Justin Beardsley, a senior lecturer ininfectious diseases at Australia’s University of Sydney, told BBC that Vietnamshowed exceptionally strong community engagement when it came to curbing spreadof the virus.
"There was big national pride aboutcontrolling the pandemic,” he added.
For her part, Dr Huong Le Thu, a senior analystat the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the new deaths reportedshows that there is transparency in reporting COVID-19 in Vietnam and thatprevious 'no deaths' should have not been questioned in the first place.
All the fatalities so far have been olderpatients with co-morbidities./.
VNA
