Foreign media commented that Vietnam's fight against Covid-19 is the dream of many countries
"No one has died. It's a success in the fight against the coronavirus that countries from the US to Italy can only dream of," Australia's ABC newspaper said.
ABC recently published an article titled “Why Vietnam, a developing country in Southeast Asia, is doing so well in the fight against Covid-19”.
The Australian newspaper assessed that while Covid-19 cases increased sharply in rich countries like Singapore and the epidemic continued to spread in other Southeast Asian countries, Vietnam remained out of the picture.
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| Vietnam received much praise for its quick response. Photo: T.Tung |
Vietnam's "zero deaths" from the Corona virus still makes the world jealous.
On February 11, Vietnam announced 8 more recoveries, bringing the total number of cured people in Vietnam to 249 out of 288 cases.
Meanwhile, Malaysia has 6,276 cases. Singapore, with a population of nearly 6 million, just a fraction of Vietnam's, has 23,787 cases.
SheetABCsaid that international organizations and the Australian Ambassador to Vietnam have expressed confidence in the data provided by Vietnam.ReutersContacted 13 funeral homes and found no spike in services.
“Vietnam announced in early February that it would have limited medical resources if a pandemic occurred, so the government quickly tried to control the disease,” said Sharon Kane, director of Plan International’s public health program in Vietnam.
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| Vietnam seeks to boost domestic tourism in the absence of international visitors. Photo: AP |
The key to Vietnam's success has been effective public relations campaigns, aggressive tracking, and strategic testing.
According toABC, very early, Vietnam realized that this was a very serious problem, the virus could attack everyone. When the first case was detected on January 22, the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control was quickly established.
Professor Mike Toole, an infectious disease expert at the Burnet Institute (Australia), assessed that Vietnam "acted faster than any country, except China".
On February 1, Vietnam Airlines suspended all flights to China. Borders were then closed and international flights stopped on March 21.
“The SARS epidemic in 2003 left many lessons, the government used those experiences and acted responsibly,” said Ms. Kane.
By March, Vietnamese scientists had developed a number of low-cost test kits. “While the US had no effective test kits, Vietnam had three,” Professor Toole said.
By the end of April, the number of laboratories in Vietnam increased from 3 to 112, conducting 260,000 tests (nearly 2,700 samples per 1 million people).
Since March 16, wearing masks has become mandatory and anyone who violates will be punished. In addition, the government has launched slogans such as “Staying at home is patriotism” and “Virus is the enemy”, encouraging people to practice good habits such as using hand sanitizer.
Authorities also released a song about the Corona virus that attracted millions of views onYouTube.
After nearly a month without new community infections, Vietnam has reopened businesses and tourist attractions. Schools are open, students are having their temperatures taken and hand sanitizers provided.
This week, the bus system in Ho Chi Minh City, a city of 9 million people, resumed operations, and Vietnam Airlines announced it would resume all domestic flights in June.
However, the sheetABCalso commented that Vietnam still faces some difficulties. First, the Vietnamese economy is strongly affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, including the tourism industry.
The industry is a major part of Vietnam’s economy, employing 750,000 people and contributing 8% of GDP (2017 figures). This week, the country announced a “Vietnamese people travel to Vietnam” campaign to boost domestic tourism.
In addition, as Vietnam continues to repatriate its citizens, the risk of Covid-19 coming from abroad remains.