New submitter AleRunner writes: Considering Vietnam’s proximity to China, where coronavirus was first reported, it might be expected that the Southeast Asian country would be affected by Covid-19 in a similar manner,” reports inews.co.uk. “China has more than 84,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 4,600 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Painting a strikingly different picture, Vietnam, which sits below its southern border, has just over 300 cases among its 97 million citizens and not a single death, according to reports.”
The article points to a key willingness to “sacrifice short-term economic benefits for the health of the people” which is now paying back in that they plan to “partially resume international flights from June 1.” The article then goes on to boost the value of Vietnam’s “authoritarian leadership” and “socialist ethos,” not mentioning the success of democratic and politically diverse countries like New Zealand, Slovenia, Taiwan and the Czech Republic. Still an interesting thought-provoking read. The report notes that Vietnam suspended flights to and from Wuhan after the first cases were detected. About a week later, the country closed its 870-mile border with China except for essential trade and travel.
“Vietnam quickly ramped up its testing and contact tracing capacity after the virus was initially detected in China, and has been expanding it since,” the report adds. “Everyone entering from China was subject to testing and contact tracing.” Interestingly, a nationwide lockdown was never implemented. Instead, it relied on testing labs, mass, centralized quarantine programs, and social distancing measures to contain the virus.
of this story at Slashdot.
Source:: Slashdot