London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Oct 03, 2025

Coronavirus: what’s behind Vietnam’s containment success?

With no deaths reported and the number of confirmed cases in the mere hundreds, Vietnam's response to the pandemic appears to be working. Elsewhere, governments enforced lockdowns to cope with existing epidemics. Vietnam did so to prevent an avoidable national crisis

Despite sharing a border with China, Vietnam has, with a combination of early decisive action, extensive testing, vigorous quarantining and social unity, so far avoided the devastation seen in Europe and the United States.

With coronavirus infections in the mere hundreds, Vietnam’s response to the crisis has earned praise from the World Health Organisation.

Official statistics show there are currently more than 75,000 people in quarantine or isolation. The country has so far conducted more than 121,000 tests, from which only 260 cases were confirmed.

As yet, there have been no virus-related deaths, and infection rates remain significantly lower than in South Korea, Singapore and even Taiwan – all of which have been widely praised in global media for their effective responses to the pandemic.

Kidong Park, the WHO’s representative to Vietnam, believes the country’s early response to the crisis was critical.

“Vietnam responded to this outbreak early and proactively. Its first risk assessment exercise was conducted in early January – soon after cases in China started being reported,” Park says.

The country quickly established a National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control under the auspices of the deputy prime minister which “immediately” implemented a national response plan, Park adds.

Despite having a low number of confirmed cases, Vietnam entered nationwide lockdown on April 1, a far faster and more decisive response than that seen in Britain or Italy, where cases ran into the many thousands before public life was shut down.

Elsewhere, governments enforced lockdowns to cope with existing epidemics. Vietnam did so to prevent an avoidable national crisis.

Much of Vietnam’s success can be ascribed to its social unity. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc recently described Vietnam’s efforts to contain the virus as the “spring general offensive of 2020" – a deliberate reference to the crucial 1968 Tet Offensive carried out by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam war.

He isn’t the only one drawing wartime parallels. Nguyen Van Trang, an economist in Hanoi, said her parents hadn’t seen such levels of compliance, discipline and solidarity since the war.

Vietnamese schools have been closed since January, and mass quarantining began on March 16. Since then, tens of thousands of people entering the country from badly hit nations have been put into compulsory quarantine in vast military-style camps. By March 25, international flights ceased altogether.

There is no easing of these restrictions yet in sight. The vast majority of domestic flights, trains and buses have been halted, and anyone leaving Hanoi – the epicentre of Vietnam’s outbreak – is quarantined upon arrival in almost any other province.

Nguyen Huy Nga, former director of the Preventive Medicine Department at Vietnam’s health ministry, explained the nation’s success in a statement on social media.

“Vietnam has not suffered a strong community spread so far, so the infected elderly are few,” she said.

“Our patients are few so we have all the facilities, medicine and doctors to treat them. In addition, we have experience in developing disease treatment regimens,” she added, alluding to Vietnam’s earlier brush with severe acute respiratory syndrome, another coronavirus.

Vietnam was the first nation outside China to confirm a case of Sars back in 2003, yet it was also the first country confirmed by the WHO to have contained the outbreak.

Vietnam’s layered contact-tracing procedure has also proven critical in battling the virus.

“The first layer is the isolation and treatment at hospitals of people confirmed to have the virus or people with symptoms who are suspected of having the virus,” Park says.

Anyone who has been in direct contact with a confirmed case faces mandatory quarantine, he adds. This measure even extends to their contacts, who are then also required self-isolate.

In a final layer, communities, streets or buildings where cases have been confirmed are also quarantined, he says.

At times Vietnamese responses to the crisis have been severe. Official signs in Ho Chi Minh City warn that those not wearing a face mask who are found to have infected another person with a dangerous disease could face up to 12 years in prison.

On March 10, a Vietnamese man was handed a nine-month prison sentence for aggressively refusing to wear a mask.

Yet though these strict measures have so far translated into a relatively successful outcome, it remains to be seen whether Vietnam or other nations with similar responses are able to contain the spread of the virus in the long run.

“We cannot make predictions, but we can say that the course of the pandemic will be determined by the actions that countries, including Vietnam, are taking now,” says Park.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×