How Vietnam has emerged as an outlier in the fight against corona?

Vietnam has been an outlier in handling of Coronavirus pandemic and it's aftereffects on people's lives and the economy. It is a model country for many south east Asian nations because of it's dense population and low per-capita income.

While developed countries are having a hard time dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic and people are dying in unprecedented numbers, Vietnam stands out as an outlier. While sharing border with China around approximately 1400 kilometres, with a population of around 90 million and a per-capita income of around $2000, Vietnam has had no cases of death due to Coronavirus till date. We call this a great achievement. Some say, Vietnam was able to use it's rich experience of handling SARS in 2003 to good effect while handling Coronavirus. 

Vietnam's maximum number of cases reported were 288 of which 249 has already recovered till date. While some other counties in nearby vicinity has been struggling. Singapore with it's highly developed status of a model country and city has almost 24,000 cases. The Vietnamese government was humble and honest since the beginning communicating the limitations the country faces in case the infection escalates too much. This honest admission led to Vietnamese people self-disciplining themselves and taking precautions.

Vietnam was swift in it's actions to curb the spread of infection. Vietnam Airlines, it's flagship carrier suspended flights from high risk zones like China, Hong Kong, Taiwan etc, on February 1st 2020. By March 21, all international flights were suspended. Almost everybody returning from abroad were placed in self quarantine, not only people coming from overseas but even local people, even mildly suspected with symptoms were quarantined.

It has strategically tested people, not wasting it's resources. It's approach has been really focused around testing, contact tracing and regular effective communication. It mobilized and created a national task force called National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control, after detecting it's first case on January 22nd. They were also able to design and develop couple of affordable test kits. They were able to ramp up their testing capacity by increasing the number of testing facilitates from three to more than a hundred in just a couple of months. By April they had conducted almost 260,000 tests i.e 2,691 tests per million of population.

While the country was preparing itself to deal with the deadly pandemic, the government used it's communication channels like TV, texts messages etc, to educate about the virus and inculcate the habit of wearing masks and using hand sanitizers etc, in their people. Wearing masks was made compulsory on March 16th with strict actions against those not complying. They also came up with a coronavirus song which went viral on social media.

With all the prevention and control measures in place the number of cases has dwindled and the businesses started opening slowly with regulations like social distancing, hygiene etc. Off late, schools have opened, tourist attractions are attracting tourists and some cities were able to even start their public transport. Probably by this month the airlines will be allowed to fly as well. A big push has been given to domestic tourism since most of the world is suffering from Coronavirus and people are not able to fly to Vietnam, a country highly reliant on their tourism industry.

Conclusion:

Vietnam has made Coronavirus pandemic look like a highly manageable infection with it's speed, planning and correct execution. While most of the developed world has been all over the place with their response to the pandemic including countries like Singapore, "Vietnam has been an outlier" of sorts. It has shown that you don't need too many resources, money and clout to weave an effective response to a deadly virus. It's experience in dealing with SARS in 2003 also came really handy while dealing with Coronavirus. It has won the first round of it's battle with Corona but it needs to be vigilant and don't let the guard down, so it stays a winner.