How did Vietnam successfully prepare against COVID-19 pandemic?

As the Philippines hits more than one million recorded COVID-19 cases, our developing country neighbor Vietnam continues to keep their total number of cases less than 3,000, with only 35 COVID-related deaths.

The country has also managed to have an economic growth of 2.9% in 2020 despite the fact that the coronavirus pandemic has hit the entire globe.

As other countries, including our own, struggle to contain the virus and its tragic effects, Vietnam becomes another icon among countries that continue to successfully contain the pandemic. How did this Southeast Asian country prepare itself against COVID-19 and save millions of its citizens’ lives?

Quick response

In a “Need to Know” episode, OCTA research team Professor Guido David said Vietnam’s pandemic preparedness boiled down to their quick response.

As early as Jan. 3, 2020, Vietnam’s Ministry of Health had strengthened their disease control measures in their borders with China.

Vietnam, as well as other countries such as Taiwan and New Zealand, imposed travel restrictions early on to stop the entry of the virus, even if the World Health Organization didn’t recommend travel restrictions back in February 2020, a month before COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic.

“What we learned is that it’s important to have an early or quick response. When people are solid, they move together, they cooperate, they respect each other, and the authority, it actually serves the country better,” said David.

“Travel restrictions are very important. We always advocate for strict implementation of our travel restrictions,” he added.

“It’s important to have strict border policies and implemented correctly. Because the reason we have variants here now is because there’s some failure in our border policies. That’s the truth. Otherwise, how can these variants enter our country?” he said in a mix of English and Filipino.

According to an “Our World In Data” study, Vietnam was able to have an effective response not only because of their travel and mobility restrictions, but also because of their well-developed public health system, comprehensive testing, quarantine measures, targeted lockdowns, and decisive central government.

“Even before the first cases in the country were confirmed, Vietnam already took early steps to implement closures, require masks, and limit the mobility of citizens and international travelers,” said the study.

“Most other countries waited to make these types of decisions until numbers were much higher,” it added

An example of their quick response was back in April 29, when they recorded their first locally transmitted COVID-19 case within 35 days. Although there weren’t more than 10 cases, authorities in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh closed bars, night clubs, and karaoke bars on April 30, the very next day.

The International Monetary Fund also said that because of Vietnam’s successful containment and timely policy support, they were able to limit the economic fallout. Instead of the economy going down, it even grew.

Learning from the past

According to “Our World In Data,” Vietnam was also able to successfully prepare for this global pandemic after it battled against the SARS epidemic in 2003 and the human cases of avian influenza from 2004 to 2010.

Because of their experience, they gained lessons and built infrastructure to better battle against COVID-19.

“This is a continuous process so we should learn from past mistakes,” David said.

“It’s going down but we don’t wan’t another surge to happen again in the future so we have to make sure that our border controls are implemented strictly. Hindi na tayo magkaroon ng resurgence (We won’t have another resurgence),” he added.

“It’s not too late.”

As of Tuesday, 5,683 new COVID-19 infections were recorded in the Philippines, bringing the total tally to 1,067,892. – Kaela Malig/RC, GMA News