How Vietnam managed to keep Covid death toll at zero

On March 6, Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, recorded its first coronavirus case and all hell broke loose. Till then, the country had gone without any new infections for 22 days on the trot as its early preventive measures such as banning flights from China paid off. So, when a woman who had been to Paris, Milan and London returned and tested positive as the seventeenth case in the country, her entire neighbourhood was locked down and all the people she had been in contact were traced and quarantined. “That was a moment of realisation for us as to how serious these people were in containing this virus. That woman had somehow avoided the screening on arrival and came to a busy area in the city. I was living barely two kilometres from her neighbourhood of more than 1,000 people and that region was completely shut down using the military after she tested positive,” said Aditya, an Indian freelance photographer in Hanoi. The jet-setter woman Nguyen Hong Nhung, the only Covid patient whose name has been disclosed, was also subjected to outrage online. “It is interesting that here there is usually a huge cyber bullying when people don’t follow rules, especially in times like these, and most of the public tend to self-monitor for the same reason,” said Aditya. On a side note, the Pathanamthitta family from Italy who were blamed for setting off the second wave of infections in Kerala may empathise with Nguyen. boxcontentHanoi's patient zeroNguyen Hong Nhung, a 26-year-old socialite, visited London, Milan and Paris and returned to Hanoi on March 2. Twelve other people who flew in with her tested positive along with her personal chauffeur and relative.Almost three months on, Vietnam remains an outlier in the fight against the coronavirus. The country has a population of 9.7 crore but has so far recorded just 327 coronavirus cases-with 278 recovered and 49 being treated- and most incredibly, zero deaths. A one-party communist state with a history of bloody wars, Vietnam is still part of the developing world but it has overcome its limitations by employing intense contact tracing and strict quarantine measures. medium76106805 “The public was made aware of the seriousness of the issue when the first few cases were confirmed in China. There was no attempt to downplay the dangers. The medical system in Vietnam is not that advanced and the quality of life is not like that of the developed countries. So, the Vietnamese people always take precautions against such infectious diseases and we build our self-defence system. As for masks, we have been wearing these even before the Covid situation due to pollution and all and now it has become much more commonplace,” said Hung Vu, a native.Hanoi in the north and Ho Chi Minh City in the south are the two major industrial hubs in the country and most of the infected cases were from these provinces. Vietnam went into a nationwide lockdown from April 1 to 22 which, along with the effective use of apps to track positive and suspected cases, helped in lowering the risk of a community spread. large76107139“There were apps from the health ministry to encourage everyone to declare their status. There was also the F-covid app which displays the registered location of all infected cases and location of all suspected cases and it changes dynamically. If you become a primary contact, you have to immediately report to the health authorities for isolation at a hospital. For suspected cases, home quarantine was enough,” said Hung. large76107211While breach of civil liberties and privacy will remain burning questions, the foreigners in Vietnam have been impressed with the transparency of information flow in the Covid times. “As an Indian who came to Vietnam recently, I was worried initially. But the government’s daily Covid updates and advisories were reassuring. The official website listed every new case with a detailed description and soon there was this belief that things were under control. Even after the lockdown, we have to wear masks to enter offices but otherwise, life seems to be back to normal with schools, restaurants, pubs, and tourist spots, opening,” said Sumith Remanan, an Indian who works in the automobile industry. Amanda, an American woman working as a teacher in Vietnam, meanwhile, thanks her stars. “I came here in February just at the beginning of the pandemic. Having seen what's happening in the US, I consider myself lucky to be in Vietnam. My sister sent me an article on Vietnam and said, you are in the safest country right now. She is right, actually,” said Amanda.boxcontent medium76107632How Vietnam got it rightQuick strategic testing When reports of COVID-19 infections came out, Vietnam acted and closely monitored border area. It quarantined communities where the infection was detected.Aggressive contact tracing People who showed COVID-19 symptoms were closely monitored and their contacts were traced.Testing kits Vietnam not only bought 200,000 tests from South Korea initially, but also developed its own successful test kits.Effective public communications campaign The government carried out public campaigns to raise awareness about the pandemic and how to suppress it.Untitled Carousel 75619342