Vietnam shares an 800-mile border with China, and trade across this border is essential to the Vietnamese economy. Although well established, it also suffers an under-developed healthcare system, much less so than European countries such as the UK. Its population of 95 million further facilitates its vulnerability to Covid 19 and compromises the country’s ability to emerge from the pandemic successfully. In spite of this, Vietnam suffered fewer than 1400 cases to date and experienced a total of 35 deaths.
It is widely known that the pandemic in the United States became largely politicised very early on, with President Trump publicly expressing spite towards China for the virus’ origin there. The Trump administration’s narrative was skewed as they increasingly linked the virus to China. Throughout this, the proliferation of rumours and conspiracies on social media further diverted the pandemic from anything more than a health crisis. Vietnam, however, exercised effective and efficient governance by abstaining from any politicisation of the pandemic. In fact, the Head of Hanoi centre for disease control was jailed for 10 years for overstating the cost of Covid 19 equipment in an attempt to avoid the undermining of the healthcare sector and the anti-Covid 19 agency.
A fundamental reason for Vietnam’s success is that it benefited from a more responsive society than wealthier countries such as the UK and US. Critically, the Vietnamese government had experience from the SARS pandemic of 2003 and the Avian Influenza of 2010. As a result, they knew the importance of acting promptly and were familiar with the measures and precautions that were vital to the suppression of the virus. The Vietnamese public themselves were also familiar with infectious diseases and the necessary measures that are required to combat a pandemic. They are certainly more compliant than citizens of the UK or US for example, where infectious disease is not as common.
Wuhan announced its first death in January, after which Vietnam immediately took action, enforcing both flight control to and from China, and heightened security at their border. Crucially, the Vietnamese government did not rely on or await advice from the World Health Organisation to take action. Rather, they took appropriate action over a month before the WHO declared Covid 19 a pandemic. After news of the first positive case in Vietnam, all flights to and from Wuhan were terminated, and temperature screening and health checks were imposed at every border. All arrivals were taken directly from the airport to Vietnamese quarantine centres and schools were shut from the end of January through to mid May. On the contrary, other countries only implemented these measures months into the pandemic, wasting valuable time and costing lives.
Vietnam also adopted a meticulous contact tracing strategy very early on in the pandemic. Self-isolation proved significant as evidence increasingly indicated that greater than half the number of cases are asymptomatic. This involved people in direct contact with any positive coronavirus case being traced, contacted and ordered to self-isolate in health centres and government facilities, avoiding further transmission. This system was so intrusive and rigorous that even indirect contacts were ordered to self-isolate at home, eliminating any possibility of transmission. The army carried out extreme sanitisation of infected households and neighbourhoods, effectively approaching the pandemic as ‘biological warfare’. Vietnam’s approach here is dissimilar to that of the UK, whose contact tracing system was implemented much further on into the pandemic. It is important to note, however, that Vietnam’s authoritarianism facilitated compliance with this exhaustive approach, and, if emulated, would be comparatively ineffective in a democratic country.
Whilst most European countries imposed a national lockdown, Vietnam adopted a localised containment approach, in which outbreaks were specifically honed in on, such as in Son Loi and Ha Loi, wherein the citizens were quarantined for 14 days, with no entry or exit out of the area until no cases were confirmed.
Vietnam defeated the coronavirus pandemic not once, but twice, adopting the same excellent strategy in the second wave in July. Whilst they prioritised the Vietnamese healthcare system over the economy in the first wave, the government factored in the vulnerability of the economy during the second. In fact, Vietnam is one of the only countries to have a positive GDP growth during this pandemic. Cases initially emerged in Da Nang and rapidly spread to other cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Min City. This time, the Vietnamese government struck a balance between strict regulations taken to contain the virus and protective measures taken to avoid long-term economic damage. Measures were re-imposed locally instead of nationally, such as the shut down of transport in and out of the cities, closure of businesses, limits on numbers present in gatherings, and masks being made mandatory in public. As measures became more selective, specific international flights, such as those for work purposes, were made available. Meanwhile, Vietnam’s aggressive test and trace system continued nationally.
Another key factor in its success was the ability of the Vietnamese government to establish excellent communication with the general public to both inform them about the virus, and to encourage them to follow orders diligently. Websites, telephone hotlines and phone apps were set up to update the general public on the pandemic and relay key information given by medical advisories. Reminders were regularly sent out to citizens via text messages to ensure that the national message was spread far and wide. The government also set up a propaganda campaign that utilised war motifs and patriotic images to unite the public against a common enemy, communicated through loudspeakers, street posters, press and social media. This militarisation of Covid 19 encouraged solidarity and collective action, placing a sense of responsibility on each individual and, in turn, prompting the public to co-operate with the government.
Vietnam fundamentally seized its small window of opportunity to suppress the virus in its early stages by initiating preparation on a massive scale in early January upon learning of the new mysterious virus in Wuhan, even before any confirmed cases had arisen in Vietnam. Measures were selective yet rigorous wherever imposed, with governance remaining focused, coherent and transparent all the while, paving Vietnam’s path to success.
Comments