A resident wearing a face mask fills a paper bag with free rice amid Vietnam’s nationwide social distancing as a preventive measure against the spread of COVID-19 (Photo: AFP)Hanoi (VNA) – As the COVID-19pandemic is spreading rapidly and causing devastating impacts in the world,Vietnam has emerged as an example in the fight against the disease and earnedpraise from the international community for its efforts.
As of April 23 afternoon, Vietnam hasreported no new COVID-19 cases for a whole week. Since the first case wasdetected three months ago, just 268 people have contracted the novelcoronavirus SARS-CoV-2, with 223 patients making full recovery and no deathsrecorded.
Inan article posted on the Asia Times, David Hutt, a freelancepolitical journalist and analyst, wrote that the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam has earned local andforeign plaudits for its firm if not heavy-handed COVID-19 containment measures.
“Vietnam’sruling Communist Party is leveraging the COVID-19 crisis to win hearts andminds by touting its quick, effective and uncharacteristically transparentmanagement of the viral outbreak,” he wrote.
As of April 23 afternoon, Vietnam hasreported no new COVID-19 cases for a whole week. Since the first case wasdetected three months ago, just 268 people have contracted the novelcoronavirus SARS-CoV-2, with 223 patients making full recovery and no deathsrecorded.
Inan article posted on the Asia Times, David Hutt, a freelancepolitical journalist and analyst, wrote that the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam has earned local andforeign plaudits for its firm if not heavy-handed COVID-19 containment measures.
“Vietnam’sruling Communist Party is leveraging the COVID-19 crisis to win hearts andminds by touting its quick, effective and uncharacteristically transparentmanagement of the viral outbreak,” he wrote.
A worker prepares to disinfect a Vietnam Airlines plane amid COVID-19 concerns at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi (Photo: AFP)Indeed,Vietnam responded quicker than most Asian nations by shutting down travel toand from China in January, even as the virus outbreak coincided with Tet, theVietnamese Lunar New Year period when many people travel home to visit familyand friends, according to the article.
Meanwhile,Le Thu Huong, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute(ASPI), wrote in an article run on “The Strategist” that: “Notmany from the developed world are easily convinced that a populous, stillrelatively poor and unequally developed one-party state like Vietnam can haveresponded so well to a pandemic that is tormenting the wealthiest and mosttechnologically advanced countries. But few remember that Vietnam was the first country to contain the SARS outbreak - injust 20 days.”
Huong’sview was shared by journalist Joshua Hanks who wrote in article posted on thewebsite “worker.org” that: “The Socialist Republicof Vietnam has also mounted a highly successful response, perhaps more so thananywhere else in the world.”
Poster in Vietnam to raise awareness of COVID-19 fight (Photo: www.workers.org)“Vietnamsets an example for both developing and wealthy countries fighting COVID-19,”he stressed.
AmySearight, Senior Adviser and Director for Southeast Asia Programme at theCentre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), also commended Vietnam’sefforts in containing the spread of COVID-19 though it shares a long borderwith China where the pandemic first broke out.
“Vietnam, a fast-growing but stilldeveloping country with far fewer resources than Singapore, also launched arapid and aggressive response to the coronavirus outbreak that so far has beenhighly successful, with zero reported deaths so far. Vietnam’s shared borderwith China and bustling cross-border trade made it highly vulnerable to thespreading of the virus, but its leaders quickly halted flights from China andclosed schools nationwide. Vietnam also became the first country outside ofChina to quarantine alarge residential area when itsealed off part of a province north of Hanoi in mid-February after an outbreakwas traced to workers returning from Wuhan. The ability of the Communist Partyof Vietnam to mobilize society has been on full display through clear publicmessaging, the ability to isolate individuals with symptoms and track theirsecond- and third-hand contacts, the quarantining of incoming travelers, and theenlistment of the services of medical students, retired doctors, and nurses,”she wrote.
In an article titled “Vietnam’sexemplary response to COVID-19” published on “The ASEAN Post”, journalist Athira Nortajuddin cited a report of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada as saying that: “Vietnam has successfully conductedtracing via the quick identification of infectious contacts based on theMinistry of Health’s classifications of infected, suspected, and exposed casesof COVID-19 and the rapid mobilisation of health professionals, public securitypersonnel, the military, and civil servants to implement the tracing.”
A motorist rides past a deserted street during Vietnam's nationwide "complete social distancing" as a preventive measure against the spread of COVID-19 in Hanoi. (Photo: AFP)The WorldEconomic Forum (WEF) alsoapplauded Vietnam for its swift response in handling the new coronavirus. TheWEF noted that Vietnam “being a single-party state, with a large andwell-organised military and security services… has been able to make decisionsquickly and enact them promptly”.
Perhaps, other nations in ASEAN and therest of the world can learn from Vietnam’s swift response in handling theCOVID-19 pandemic, it stressed.
The Deutsche Welle newswire of Germany also ran astory entitled “How Vietnam is winning its ‘war’ on coronavirus” in which it said “onething is clear: Vietnam has a done a good job thus far in fighting thecoronavirus.”
“Althoughthere are no studies to prove it, the mood on social media and conversationswith Vietnamese indicate that the majority of the public agrees with thegovernment measures. They are proud that Vietnam is faring comparatively wellin meeting the crisis,” it noted.
People in Vietnam wear face masks (Photo: www.dw.com)Someforeign experts attributed Vietnam’s successes in the fight against thepandemic to the determination of the Vietnamese Party’s and Government’sleaders.
"Theyhad political commitment early on at the highest level. And that politicalcommitment went from central level all the way down to the hamlet level,"said John MacArthur, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention'scountry representative in Thailand.
Professor Carl Thayer from Australia’sUniversity of New South Wales said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc “hasbeen proactive in taking action,” and “he has established a task force tooversee national, provincial and local levels.”
Meanwhile, the UK’sFinancial Times also wrote: “Vietnam has proved a model in containing thedisease in a country with limited resources but determined leadership.”/.
VNA
