Hanoi gives quick tests for more than 200 employees and small traders at the Long Bien agricultural wholesale market. (Photo: VNA)
In the article, the author repeatedly quoted Mr. Peter Jenni, who has lived for many years in Vietnam, so the issues were mentioned more clearly and convincingly.
Opening the article, author Reto Fehr wrote that the initial situation was bad for Vietnam as it shares a long border with China where the coronavirus disease first broke out, and Chinese are among the largest groups of tourists to Vietnam.
However, Vietnam has taken measures to make this Southeast Asian nation a model in the fight against COVID-19. After the first recorded case in Vietnam of a man from Wuhan (China) who came to Vietnam to visit his son on January 23rd, Vietnam has well controlled the pandemic.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Vietnam has so far only had more than 300 cases of COVID-19, with no fatalities. The country has gone over 60 straight days without new infections in the community, while imported cases were immediately isolated for 14 days from their arrival.
The author of the article identified four reasons for the success of Vietnam in containing the pandemic.
Firstly, the Vietnamese Government quickly introduced control measures right after the first cases were detected and was the first country to carry out large-scale isolation after China.
The author quoted Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc saying on January 27th that the Vietnamese Government accepted some economic losses to protect the lives of the people.
Secondly, almost no country has implemented drastic exposure tracing like Vietnam and Vietnam was assessed to have a good testing rate by independent experts.
Third, Vietnam provides clear and transparent information.
The Vietnamese Government organizes daily press conferences and updates on the latest developments, while newspapers, social media, even phone messages are used for this purpose.
The fourth is the spirit of solidarity and consensus of the people. With the slogan "Fighting the pandemic like fighting the enemy" or "Staying at home is patriotism," the measures taken are trusted, followed and implemented by the people. Those who cannot take care of themselves will receive help from communities.
In addition, the Government and businesses also install a lot of “rice ATMs” to help those in need./.