Passengers have their body temperature checked before entering Hanoi Train Station. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – UK-based Telegraph called Vietnam “anunder-reported success story of the pandemic” in an article published on April23, given that the country had reported, by that time, just 268 cases and zerodeaths.
Vietnam has started to lift the strict movement and social distancingrestrictions that still remain in many of its Southeast Asian nations, allowingdaily life in major cities to slowly come back to normal, the newspaper said.
The country of 95 million people has managed to keep theCOVID-19 under control despite being less wealthy than other strong Asian performerslike the Republic of Korea and Taiwan (China), and its 1,000-km porous borderwith China, it said.
Like its Asian countries, Vietnam’s swift response was based ona robust pandemic response plan that was forged after recent deadly brusheswith other high-risk infectious diseases, including SARS and A/H5N1.
It highlighted the Vietnamese strategy, saying it focused ona combination of targeted, rigorous contact-tracing and testing to swiftlycontain small clusters of the COVID-19 before they spread further.
After the first cases were confirmed in January, Vietnamquarantined more than 10,000 people in Son Loi commune in the northern provinceof Vinh Phuc after a smattering of infections. It also decided early on toimpose a 14-day quarantine on anyone arriving in the country from a high-riskarea while all schools and universities have been closed since the beginning of February, it noted.
“In March, when Vietnam’s 22-day disease-free run was brokenby a cluster of imported cases linked to a flight from London, officialstracked down and quarantined all passengers, and suspended visa-free entry forthe UK and several European countries,” the Telegraph said. “It later sealedoff its borders.”
The newspaper also hailed Vietnam’s massive publicinformation campaign on the pandemic, which included the hand-washing song "GhenCo Vy" that went viral globally.
It quoted Dr John MacArthur, Thailand country director forthe US Centres for Disease Control, as praising Vietnam’s response which wasmade possible by “strong public health systems, the whole-of-governmentapproach” and a huge team of “disease detectives” to carry out contacttracing./.
VNA
