Vietnam's success story against COVID-19

• Published in: Public health in practice (Oxford, England) England), 2021-11, Vol.2, p.100132, Article 100132
• Main Authors: Nguyen Thi Yen, Chi, Hermoso, Catherine, Laguilles, Elaine May, De Castro, Louise Elaine, Camposano, Shera Marie, Jalmasco, Noel, Cua, Kim Aira, Isa, Mashkur Abdulhamid, Akpan, Edikan Friday, Ly, Tuan Phong, Budhathoki, Shyam Sundar, Ahmadi, Attaullah, Lucero-Prisno, Don Eliseo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: COVID-19; Health system; Low-cost approach; Pandemic; Responses; Vietnam
• ISSN: 2666-5352; 2666-5352
• DOI: 10.1016/j.puhip.2021.100132

Vietnam's close proximity to China where the COVID-19 outbreak started made it one of the countries expected to have widespread transmission of the virus. However, the country opposed this expectation and attained low spread of COVID-19 infection due to its proactive approaches in containing the disease. As of March 11, 2021, Vietnam has a total of 2529 confirmed cases, equivalent to 26 cases per one million population-compared to the global rate of 15,223 cases. The low-cost model approach used by Vietnam in dealing with previous public health issues, tackle the importance of a strategic public health system, good governance, and citizen cooperation in the fight against COVID 19 pandemic. This paper aims to analyze Vietnam's achievement in its early and continued success in combating COVID-19 by taking into account various aspects of its health system and experience on outbreaks that have previously occurred and how these can be applied to current COVID-19 responses.