It noted that when the threat of COVID-19 dawned, the government quickly ordered and strictly enforced border closures. Contact tracing was extensive for all suspected cases of COVID-19, and all individuals suspected to have been exposed to the virus were identified and isolated.
To implement this strategy of mass, coordinated quarantine, including cooking and delivering meals to those in isolation, employing sanitation efforts, contact tracing, and testing, required a large human resource capacity, which the Vietnamese government recruited among medical students and workers, party-affiliated social organisations, and the military. Social media, widely available in Vietnam, was used to promote public health messaging and dispel misinformation.
While Vietnam’s current outbreak is dwarfed by those in neighbours like Indonesia and the Philippines, the government continues to enforce quarantine regulations for all traced, suspected cases and strict regulations on foreign entry, according to the writing.
The article said the Vietnamese government is demonstrating that it can deploy the necessary policies and resources of the state to the strategies it chooses, whether that is protecting public health during a global pandemic, or increasing accountability and transparency of governance to attract foreign investors. Certainly, the Vietnamese government’s public health approach was impressive, and the country was uniquely positioned to take on the challenge of COVID-19.
The recent outbreaks will require Vietnam’s public health ministries and surveillance capabilities to maintain strong coordination with government leadership as there is continued pressure to reopen the country to foreign tourists and business.
Vietnam has proven that it has strong and durable institutions that could protect the country’s public health through future pandemics, without relying on vaccines alone.
The Vietnamese government has demonstrated it can enact an effective preventative public health model through the structures of its state if it so chooses, and perhaps that’s the lesson for other governments to learn if countries are each to prepare state-led pandemic responses in the future, the writing added.
