German media: Vietnam – bright spot in COVID-19 fight hinh anh 1People working at Long Bien market waiting for COVID-19 test (Source: VNA)

Berlin (VNA) – The German media continued seeking for answers for Vietnam’s success in the COVID-19 fight. In the past month, major news agencies, newspaper and research institutes of Germany have appreciated the country’s disease response strategy.

On April 22, the Handelsblatt (Commerce) newspaper run an article saying that the Vietnamese Government’s rapid response is the main reason for the nation’s surprising victory in the fight against the disease.

The article started with the lockdown of a commune 40km outside of Hanoi capital city when it had reported just six infections. With a decision to quarantine the entire commune with 10,000 residensts in 20 days, Vietnam became first country outside China to conduct a large-scale quarantine to prevent the disease.

The early response is now paying off for Vietnam as on April 22, the national health authorities did not report a single new coronavirus case for the sixth consecutive day, the article said, adding that the country has confirmed 268 infection cases, with no deaths.

Therefore, Vietnam is considered by experts to be one of the few bright spots in the global fight against the SARS-CoV-2, and hoped to well cope with the economic crisis.

According to the article, Regional Director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) for the Western Pacific praised the Vietnamese Government for dealing with the virus crisis, and affirmed that the discipline of the population in the implementation of social distancing measures helped as well.

While large parts of Asia are in danger of slipping into recession, economists believe that Vietnam can still expect noticeable economic growth. Both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), in their annual forecasts released in April, expect the country to see the strongest growth this year among Southeast Asian economies, it said.

The article’s author also assessed that Vietnam is also open and transparent in the disease fight, as its Government organises daily press conferences to release specific information about the situation.

In addition, Vietnam has also provided support for many countries around the world by presenting them with medical face masks, with Germany being one of the receivers, the author noted./.
VNA