Jakarta (VNA) – Senior expert Veeramalla Anjaiah from the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) in Indonesia has expressed his appreciation for Vietnam’s efforts in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

In an interview recently granted to a Vietnam News Agency reporter in Jakarta, Anjaiah said Vietnam did quite well in pandemic prevention and control during the early stages of the outbreak and was subsequently not impacted by the pandemic for a long period of time.

However, the more infectious Delta variant has caused the fourth outbreak wave in the nation.

Anjaiah, therefore, recommended that first, like Indonesia, the country should be properly aware of the pandemic and strive to increase its predictability. While it is impossible to wipe out the SARS-CoV-2 virus, countries globally must find a way to live together safely with it.

He suggested that Vietnam should learn lessons from Indonesia in handling the disease, which is to push the vaccination rate as soon as possible, up to 65-70 percent of the national population at best in order to achieve herd immunity.

With a population of over 90 million people, Vietnam needs to vaccinate at least 65-70 million residents. After achieving the goal of giving the first and second shots, the country should then consider planning booster shots to achieve greater vaccine efficacy. Therefore, diversifying vaccine types and ensuring supply should be done as swiftly as possible, he said.

He added that though the pandemic has eased in severity, citizens still need to seriously follow social distancing measures, wear masks, wash hands regularly, and avoid mass gatherings.

The expert expressed his belief that Vietnam could overcome the pandemic quickly thanks to drastic actions by the Government and high public awareness./.