Vietnam’s Fight Against COVID-19: A Story of Collective Success?

During the onset of the pandemic, Vietnam was one of the veery few countries in the world who came up with a successful model for the COVID-19 pandemic. Strict lockdown measures like banning all commercial flights into and out of the country, strict quarantines, social distancing and stay at home orders were taken as a sign of patriotism and were well supported by the public. The military of the country played an active role in the handling of the pandemic. The quarantine centres were heavily regulated by the soldiers who also distributed meals, took temperatures daily and checked in with the people in quarantine zones daily. As a result of this, while many countries were grappling with the pandemic, Vietnam's situation was relatively under control. This was because Vietnam led a war against COVID-19.

Vietnam is a small country with a population of about 96 million, thereby, extremely vulnerable to the pandemic. While it was able to deal efficiently with the first wave of Covid-10 pandemic with only 1100 cases and 35 deaths, the scenario has drastically changed during the second wave of the pandemic. During the first wave, such efficiency was Vietnam’s response to the pandemic, that it was not only lauded by the richer countries but also by the western media outlets like BBC, Telegraph among others. Vietnam's healthcare system is made of four administration levels - central, provincial, district and commune. The provincial levels were pivotal to delivering health services and increasing capacity for both testing as well as hospitalization. The local commune levels of the health system provided education to the people and helped in creating awareness about the do’s and don’ts during the pandemic. Additionally, the village healthcare systems were also efficient in providing essential healthcare to the residents, especially in rural areas as in small hamlets the local staff was better able to guide and help people. The healthcare system was supported by the military in contact tracing. Military bases were converted into quarantine zones.

According to studies conducted by 12 different institutions including Cambridge and Harvard, Vietnam comes second where participants trust their government to take care of its citizens. This trust enabled both the healthcare department and military to take care of its citizens. This resulted in less panic and social divisions when the help was being disseminated by the government. The government of Vietnam is very well aware about the trust which its citizens place on it. In order to be accountable, the citizens were best informed about the measures and the ground reality through social media accounts. Many social organizations and philanthropists launch campaigns like 'rice ATMs' and 'Ban COVID-19' to provide food and protective equipment and necessities to the vulnerable people during the economic slowdown. Vietnam has had a previous history of handling SARS virus. It was one of the very few countries which managed the outbreak of SARS through decidedness and cooperation with other players after initial hiccups. Vietnam capitalized on early detection of the SARS diseases and confined it to hospitals, thus confining the outbreak to hospitals and breaking the chain of community spread. This strategy was successfully used in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic as well. It is also worth knowing that Vietnam has relied on socialist values and strategies instead of relying heavily on a high cost approach. Using its previous knowledge from the SARS outbreak in 2003, Vietnam used low-cost models to deal with the pandemic. Instead of being dependent on mass testing which is costly, it used its disease surveillance, training and outbreak response-based experience to come up with a low-cost model approach for the COVID-19 pandemic. It closed its borders rapidly and put strict quarantine protocols on foreign arrival. It aggressively tracked and traced the outbreak with the use of technology and put nationwide measures social distancing and mandatory face mask wearing.

Up till a few months ago, Vietnam's success story was a hit and it could boast about being one of the world's most successful COVID-19 responses. But the success story has taken a hit due to the Delta driven wave of infections. In the past week, the country has recorded an average of 10,680 cases per day and the COVID-19 related deaths have surged to 360 per day. According to the John Hopkins, 0,680 per day and COVID-related deaths surging to 360 per day. In total, 263,543 of the country’s 358,456 infections have been reported in the past month while 8,296 of the country’s 8,666 deaths from COVID-19 have occurred in the past month. With things being well, Vietnam had allowed the business and factories to remain open which led to a 2.9% GDP growth. But in May 2021, Vietnam reported more than 100 cases tied to a church in Ho Chi Minh city. Immediate measures were put into place but the delta variant is highly transmissible and it has overwhelmed the airtight system of Vietnam. Even though the country did well during the first wave of the pandemic, it was always vulnerable to the virus. The principal reason behind this is the low vaccination rate. As of now, only 1.9% of the population has been fully vaccinated while 15.8-16% of the population has been given the first jab. The richer countries have been able to procure vaccines way faster than the middle income or low-income countries.

But Vietnam may have also gotten complacent about securing the jabs while the country was relatively free of COVID-19 this spring. Vaccination drive was launched in March using the doses from British vaccine maker AstraZeneca as well Russia Sputnik V Vaccine. But the country did not increase its vaccination drive until July when the officials gave a green light for the distribution of doses from Chinese vaccine maker Sinopharm and American firms like Pfizer and Moderna. As of now, Vietnam has secured 100 million vaccine doses and has also rolled out a plan to vaccinate 50% of its population by the end of 2020. The United States has donated 5 million Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to Vietnam. U.S Vice President Kamla Harris' visit to Vietnam on 25th August 2021 has resulted in the talks of greater cooperation on COVID-19 crises between both the countries, aimed at countering the growing influence of China. Vice President Harris has also promised the one million doses would arrive by 26th August, which brings the tally of vaccines donated to Vietnam to 6 million doses. 

With the country's healthcare system on the brink of exhaustion, increasing vaccination drives is one solution which can bring the situation under control. In the short term, lockdowns are the only measures which can prevent the country from further plummeting into the pandemic crises. The numbers are still less when compared to the European countries, Vietnam is trying its level best to deal with the delta wave of the pandemic. It has also deployed troops, militiamen and public security forces to supervise social distancing and masking while helping provide medical and essential services. A CIEM report suggests that the pandemic arguably would be brought under control by the end of 2021. Beyond this, a lot rides on how the vaccination policy will be implemented. The delta wave is going to impact the economy of the country negatively unlike the first wave which witnessed a growth. Economic stimulus will have to be provided and economic reforms might be needed to give a boost to the economy. Vietnam has been successful before and its success story was a hit during the first wave of the pandemic. But there is a greater need for a cooperation amongst the different stakeholders of the system to relaunch the war on COVID-19. 

Pic Courtesy-VNA News

(The views expressed are those of the author and do not represent views of CESCUBE.)