Controlling the COVID-19 pandemic: Useful lessons from Vietnam.

Dear Editor,

In December 2019, an outbreak of respiratory infectious disease (COVID-19) due to a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in Wuhan city, a Chinese province of Hubei. On March 12, 2020, the outbreak was declared as a pandemic. Up to July 08, 2020, this pandemic has affected 213 countries and territories around the world and international conveyances with 11,980,595 cases and 547,321 deaths [1].

Vietnam faces a high risk of a severe COVID-19 outbreak, as the country has a nearly 1500 km border with China and a large population of nearly 100 million people. Despite limited resources of middle-income country, Vietnam has managed to take the control of the outbreak since the first cases were confirmed more than five months ago. Vietnam can be considered as successful in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. Until now, 369 cases were confirmed (342 recovered), no deaths, and no new cases circulated in community from April 16, 2020 were reported [2].

Vietnam reported the first two cases in the country on January 23, 2020 [3]. On the next day, the Government ordered the activation of the emergency prevention system against SARS-CoV-2 [2]. On January 31, 2020, Vietnam ceased all flights to China and Hong Kong. The border with China was also shut few days later. After new infections in March, all international flights were grounded, and a nationwide lockdown commenced on April 1, 2020 for two weeks. All schools have closed for more than 3 months. Use of face masks was mandatory in public places. Gatherings of more than 30 individuals or festivals, religious ceremonies and sporting events were also banned.

A national steering committee for COVID-19 management was established early and developed a multi-sectoral response plan with the Ministry of Health (MOH) playing a central role. Ministry of Information and Communication has been in close contact, from the beginning, with the MOH about the dissemination of information on control and prevention of COVID-19. Official newspapers, specific website of MOH [2] and open television channels continuously provided daily updates on positive cases worldwide and in Vietnam. Repeated communications about COVID-19 prevention were broadcast on loudspeakers of each village. Moreover, the MOH has created an official account on social media, sent SMS to all residents and changed the waiting ringtone into a voice message to remind peoples about preventive measures against COVID-19. In fact, public compliance with precaution measures, including wearing face masks, hand hygiene and social distancing, was high. Rule breakers were severely punished.

Vietnam has 63 provincial health departments, an approximately 600 district health centers and more than 11,000 primary health stations [4]. While hospitals provide medical care for Covid-19 patients, the primary health stations are responsible for prevention activities and total support for hospitals. In fact, an approximately 97,000 health officers at community level in these sections [4] serve as the frontline workers to provide information, advice, guidance, and isolation facilities if needed.

The National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology succeeded in culturing the SARS-CoV-2 on February 07, 2020. That has allowed local institutions to produce test kits. Overall, 110 laboratories can perform real-time PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 identification, with a capacity of more than 25,000 tests per day [2]. As of July 08, 2020, 275,000 tests were realized, the nation had the highest test per confirmed case ratio in the world [1].

Vietnam is one of the best countries conducting intensive surveillance and lockdown operation for all newly COVID-19-confirmed cases. When a test revealed positive, the patients (named F0) were immediately isolated in health facilities. They must also complete a questionnaire giving the name of all the people they had recently contacted. People in the close contact with the confirmed case, named F1, must undertake testing and government-run quarantine. Those had close contact with F1 (F2) must be isolated in dedicated accommodation facilities. F3 were individuals in close contact with F2 must self-isolate at home [5]. In Vietnam, the police will not hesitate to wake the citizen up at midnight to warn that one of their relatives is infected. This is an intrusive system, but the majority of people fully conform to it. Charges for SARS-CoV-2 test, accommodation and food during quarantine and treatment are totally free, regardless of nationalities of cases. This epidemiological investigation has succeeded to identify the infection sources thereby controlling the outbreak.

Multiples effective measures have been key to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam to date. Nevertheless, as the pandemic is happening at the fast speed and with the complicated level, combating the outbreak becomes more challenging mission for Vietnam and the world.

Funding

No funding.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.