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Learning from Vietnam on how to handle COVID-19
We should learn more from Vietnam on how to manage a pandemic effectively.
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V
ietnam is a dynamic country with so many success stories: Be it economic growth, exports, investments or tourism, you name a sector, there’s a success story.
Its latest success story is in the health sector. We should learn more from Vietnam on how to manage a pandemic effectively.
With 97.75 million people and a long border with China, Vietnam has just 1,438 COVID-19 cases and 35 deaths as of Dec. 25. It is one of the few countries in the world that has had huge success in its fight against the novel coronavirus.
In comparison, Indonesia has 700,097 cases and 20,847 deaths as of Dec. 25, the highest in Southeast Asia and the third highest in Asia after India and Iran.
How did Vietnam achieve this? It is amazing to see that a developing country like Vietnam can have a better health system and more effective government mechanism at a time when most developed countries are struggling to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. What were the factors that contributed to its success in controlling the pandemic?
“There are many factors for Vietnam’s success. The first one is the early response to the pandemic,” Vietnamese Ambassador to Indonesia Pham Vinh Quang said at a year-end virtual press briefing on Dec. 22 in Jakarta.
According to Ambassador Quang, Vietnam correctly predicted the impacts of the pandemic and took drastic action in early January, even before the virus had appeared in the country. Vietnam reported its first COVID-19 case on Jan. 23 and by that time, the government’s emergency plan was already in force.
In commenting on Vietnam’s quick response, an expert said this was the correct decision.
"It very, very quickly acted in ways which seemed to be quite extreme at the time, but were subsequently shown to be rather sensible," said director Guy Thwaites of Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) in Ho Chi Minh City, as quoted in “How 'overreaction' made Vietnam a virus success”, published in the BBC on May 15.
In comparison, Indonesia was not at all prepared for COVID-19, which first appeared on March 2. It took the pandemic lightly, not to mention that even before the pandemic, its health system was a big mess with insufficient hospital beds, doctors, nurses and labs.
The Jakarta Post reported in June that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo criticized the Health Ministry, then led by Terawan Agus Putranto, for its low spending on public health during the country’s struggle to contain the local outbreak.
Terawan has also been widely criticized for his poor communication skills, and President Jokowi replaced him this Wednesday with Budi Gunadi Sadikin, who already heads the national economic recovery committee.
Lessons from Vietnam
Ambassador Quang said that Vietnam had been taking several measures to contain the epidemic since January.
“We implemented containment policies in the affected areas. We have also closed our borders and put travel restriction on people. Strict quarantine measures were taken. We did not close down entire country, but only affected areas were put under lockdown. Wearing of masks has become mandatory,” he said.
“Our policies on COVID-19 are also transparent, cost-effective, intrusive and labor intensive oriented.”
Vietnam was lauded for its swift decision-making, effective public health messaging and aggressive contact tracing from day one.
“I think Vietnamese people are obedient to government rules. They listen to [their] government. As a result, COVID-19 was effectively contained there,” Sudharmono, a private employee in West Jakarta, told the Post on Wednesday.
Communication has been critical to Vietnam’s COVID-19 response.
“Our government has sent all the information about COVID-19 and precautionary measures regularly to all phones in Vietnam. This information can easily reach people at the grassroots. People have full trust in the government,” a Vietnamese diplomat told the Post on the condition of anonymity.
Quang said that Vietnam and Indonesia had agreed to work together to prevent and stop the spread of the disease: “Within the bilateral framework, the two countries have taken steps to support each other and share experiences in coping with the epidemic in the spirit of solidarity and friendship.”
Vietnam has also cooperated closely with Indonesia in the multilateral ASEAN framework.
“Vietnam in the role of ASEAN Chairman 2020 has actively coordinated with Indonesia to organize the ASEAN Special Summit between ASEAN and East Asian partner countries, special ministerial-level meetings and other related meetings to discuss COVID-19 response measures,” said Quang.
“At the United Nations Security Council, the two countries also jointly promoted the adoption of relevant resolutions on pandemic cooperation,” he added.
Now all countries are looking to COVID-19 vaccines to stop the pandemic. Indonesia, as the de facto leader of ASEAN, and Vietnam, the outgoing ASEAN chair, must work together to design a plan to coordinate vaccine distribution so that nobody is left out.
