No new COVID-19 cases detected for four consecutive days

According to a report from the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, since the announcement of the latest case in Ha Giang Province on the morning of April 16, over the past four days the total number of COVID-19 in the country has remained at 268, of which, 160 entered Vietnam from abroad, accounting for 59.7%, while 108 were infected in the community, accounting for 40.3%.

Yesterday, two more patients were declared to have recovered (Patients 156 and 241, who were treated at Bac Lieu Province General Hospital). The duo will continue to be self-isolated and monitored for the next 14 days. Meanwhile, all three critically ill patients have improved.

So far, Vietnam has had 202 recoveries, accounting for 75% of the total number of cases, and suffered no deaths. The nation is one of only three countries in the world with more than 200 COVID-19 infection cases but no deaths.

Among the patients still under treatment in Vietnam, 13 have tested negative once and seven have tested negative twice. A total of 62,998 people are under quarantine or health monitoring.

Vietnamese-Cambodian people assisted during COVID-19

On April 19, nearly 150 emergency relief gifts were distributed to Vietnamese-Cambodian people in Phnom Penh. These included bags of rice, noodles and masks donated by Vietnamese businesses and benefactors to Vietnamese compatriots who are in difficult circumstances due to the impact of COVID-19.

The Vietnam Business Club in Cambodia (VBCC) said that it had plans to help Vietnamese-Cambodian people before and after the epidemic, including through encouraging Vietnamese families to send their children to schools and creating favourable conditions for them to have jobs at VBCC member units to help them with long term livelihood.

Previously, from April 13 to 18, the Vietnamese Embassy in Cambodia, in collaboration with VBCC and the Khmer-Vietnam Association, organised a vast relief programme in multiple Cambodian provinces and cities, helping thousands of Vietnamese and Khmer families amid the epidemic. The activities, with support from the home country and Vietnamese businesses in Cambodia, will continue until the end of the epidemic.

On the morning of April 19, the Cambodian Ministry of Health announced that two more COVID-19 patients recovered, including a 34-year-old Vietnamese woman. After several days with no new infections detected and no deaths, 105/122 positive cases have been declared recovered by the Cambodian health sector.

Russian media hails Vietnam’s anti- COVID-19 efforts

On April 19, the Russian newspaper Rusvesna published an article entitled "Vietnam Miracle", praising the encouraging achievements in the battle against COVID-19 by the Vietnamese government and people, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

With a population of about 100 million people, a high population density and a shared border with China - the first epicentre of the global epidemic - only 260 cases of coronavirus infection have been registered in Vietnam so far, including about 200 recoveries, the article stated.

The author of the paper also highly appreciated the control of the epidemic situation in Vietnam, saying that people from areas of the epidemic were checked, timely quarantine measures were organised, infections were detected at an early stage, and dozens of patients with COVID-19 were successfully treated.

Thanks to experience in combating SARS in 2003 or H5N1 in 2004, Vietnam effectively coped with the crisis and the country managed not to become a “hot spot” for COVID-19. As a result, all Vietnamese support the Government’s measures in the prevention of COVID-19, the article wrote.

In addition to the fight against the epidemic, economic support measures from the government were announced by the government in early March to support the country's economy in the amount of US$1.2 billion, which should help Vietnam to remain one of the fastest growing economies in the region, according to the author.

Despite the fact that last year's economic growth rate of 7% cannot be maintained, development will also be very significant, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) predicts. According to ADB experts, Vietnam’s GDP will grow by 4.8% this year, so Vietnam will retain its position as one of the locomotives of regional economic development.

“If it is possible to cope with the epidemic of coronavirus on a global scale, then next year’s GDP growth will return to the targeted 6.8% and will maintain its high pace in the medium and long term,” the article concluded.