On March 18th 2020, a 43- year-old British pilot in Vietnam, Stephen Cameron, was
diagnosed with Covid-19 and admitted to a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.
As the most critically ill patient in the country, Cameron became a rallying point for the Vietnamese.
When news broke that his lungs were failing, more than 50
Vietnamese volunteered to donate their lungs, while health experts nationwide
were roped in as the country mounted an all-out effort to save him.
The government spent more than $200,000 on the Vietnam Airlines pilot and he eventually defied the odds
avoiding a coronavirus death and making a near full recovery.
He is just one of the many patients to survive Covid-19 in the country
which has zero fatalities and a few hundred confirmed cases
in the first six months of the outbreak, an impressive feat by all accounts.
When news of a pneumonia-like virus from across the border in China reached
Vietnam, the government immediately took the potential spread seriously,
anticipating that the country could have thousands of cases and framing the outbreak as a war.
Vietnam's government carried out its response in phases.
As early as January 10th, before the country had recorded its first case on January 23rd,
Vietnam started screening passengers from Wuhan, China.
Suspected cases were isolated while it ordered its 97- million strong population to wear masks,
going above and beyond the World Health Organization's advice.
I mean Vietnamese people, we were all anxious, even before there were cases in in Vietnam.
That is Ngoc Pham and her friend Kevin Moulié. Both live in Ho Chi Minh City in the south.
The government communicate with us very early on about what was happening in China
and that there were there was a high risk that the virus might come to Vietnam.
We remember what happened with SARS few years back,
People were aware of possible consequences of the virus.
SARS, or the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, originated in southern China in 2003,
and quickly reached Vietnam's shores in the same year.
In the later parts of the year, Vietnam was battling another outbreak,
avian influenza, commonly known as Bird flu.
When Vietnam recorded its first case of Covid-19 on January 23rd 2020,
the Southeast Asian country was ready.
On February 1st, it was one of the first countries to halt all flights from China,
and closed its 870-mile land border with its northern neighbor on the same day.
The next phase of the government's strategy centred on increasing testing capacity,
communication to the public, and stepping up its quarantine efforts.
Between January and May the country would increase its testing sites from 2 to 63 ,
enabling it to conduct more than 260,000 tests.
Moreover those who tested positive and their immediate contacts were
quarantined in military-run camps, field hospitals and university residences.
I think that mass quarantine in military camps is one of the elements that makes Vietnam a success.
because it's easier to control people when you put them in one area.
Nguyen Linh is an analyst who has studied the Vietnam government's response to Covid-19.
Because of the form of society and the government in Vietnam, It was able to do that.
Perhaps the most unorthodox strategy employed by the government,
was a remake of a Vietnamese song, 'Jealous', created to encourage hand-washing and general hygiene.
And the song went viral!
I think it's a good way to, yeah, to reach out to people and make people sensitive about the topic.
And they played the song everywhere. So in the elevators, in hallways...
Despite testing aggressively and a communication and quarantine strategy at the start,
the country still recorded a jump in the number of new cases.
After recording only 16 cases in the first month of the outbreak, the second wave
in Vietnam occurred on March 6th with another 254 cases by May 1st.
As the numbers surged, the government declared that the country was in an epidemic and
implemented a nationwide lockdown. Until May 1st, around 200,000 people were quarantined.
If you compare the public health system in Vietnam to other countries in southeast Asia,
I think Vietnam still has a big room to improve in terms of public health or treatment.
The most important measure in this case is isolating people,
like a movement restriction and the government did a great job in that.
On January 20th the Ministry of Health also designated 22 hospitals to treat Covid-19 patients.
This ensured that other hospitals were not overwhelmed.
Of its first 328 cases, 90% had recovered.
But some experts have questioned the reliability of its data,
especially since the country is a one-party state and has a tight control over the media.
Some people may question whether we are seeing the right number of cases, the right number of deaths.
What do you say to people who say that ?
Vietnam's government, they have been pressuring companies like Facebook, YouTube, Google
to remove some anti-government content but I think this time in terms of the Covid-19,
the level of transparency we have seen from Vietnam's government is pretty much unprecedented.
And the country appears to be on a path to recovery, much faster than its neighbors.
It was among the first countries to ease social distancing measures and to reopen its economy.
In fact, the government allowed the first chartered flight from Japan at the end
of June after suspending travel in March. Between April and June 20th its economy
grew unexpectedly by 0.36% while the government has a target of 5% growth for the rest of the year.
For many life even appears back to normal.
Yet Ngoc and Kevin don't see the reopening as a return to their old lives, but rather a
new normal with new lessons.
Has it changed your perspective on life?
We measure that there are so many more important stuff in in life such as
health as we say family and also friends because in situation like this,
We're just so anxious all the time. I think it's so important to have people to rely on.
Now you realize that you're not you're not young, and
your parents are not young either and they're getting very old and they're they're
always they will be in the high-risk. I text some friends saying okay if your
building is locked down you can ask me to come and deliver food for you and
then they also said the same so thank God, you have your friends when you don't have your family here.
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