Sydney (VNA) – The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on September 23 ran an article, saying Vietnam has gone more than two weekswithout a single case of coronavirus via community transmission, effectivelybeating the virus for a second time.

The article said from the beginning of the pandemic,the Vietnamese Government went in fast and hard against the virus.

"From an early stage, communications about thevirus and the strategy were transparent,” it cited the International MonetaryFund (IMF) as saying.

Guy Thwaites, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City-basedOxford University Clinical Research Unit, told the ABC that "Vietnam isvery used to infectious diseases … it's had many outbreaks of infectiousdiseases over the past 20 years."

"This hasn't been a high-tech response, it's beena very rapid and very well organised response."

According to Thwaites, Vietnamese authorities did allof the simple stuff they did last time, but they did it at scale and they didit rapidly. Pool sampling was used, whereby the samples of five or six peoplecan be tested together. If there is a positive result, all samples will beindividually tested.

"Whole households went into one sample," theprofessor said, adding that communities or neighbourhoods with known cases weretargeted first.

"In that way they were able to test theequivalent of around 100,000 people through around 20,000 tests. This allowedthem to save a lot of time and money."

Jos Aguiar, an Australian working for a Vietnameseproperty company in Da Nang, told the ABC that the lockdown was a lot stricterthan last time and the response on our street was good, they found a case andquickly locked it down.”

"In our neighbourhood they barricaded both sidesof the street, it's an inconvenience but I am happy with the way Vietnamhandled it."

Tran Ba Linh of Bath University and RobynKlingler-Vidra of King's College London have been researching how theVietnamese community has responded to the pandemic.

They told the ABC that Da Nang locals had"donated money, food and essential goods to the city's largest hospital,which was the epicentre of this second wave.”

"Upon discharge, [one patient] even founded acharity with his friends to produce disinfectant and sanitising booths forhospitals in and around Da Nang," they said.

The Vietnamese Prime Minister announced last week thatflights between Vietnam and Seoul, Guangzhou, Taipei and Tokyo would resume,according to the article.

Tourists cannot enter yet, with repatriatingVietnamese and foreigners who are highly-skilled workers or investors givenearly priority.
Nevertheless, the economic fallout of COVID-19 willnot be as punishing for Vietnam as for regional neighbours.

"Vietnam is still being expected to be one of thefew countries that will continue to grow in 2020, while the rest of the worldis being projected to enter into recession," the ABC cited theinternational consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers as saying.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) projects Vietnam'seconomy will grow by 1.8 percent this year, making it one of the only few Southeast Asian economies not to contract.

Nevertheless, Tran and Klingler-Vidra said "mostof the people took care of themselves, so there has been little sense of beingforced to do anything".

"Masks, social distancing, quarantine, lockdownwere not politicised; they were simply tools and measures to keep you and lovedones safe," they were quoted by the article as saying./.