A family hangs out at Hanoi's walking street area around the Hoan Kiem Lake,
on May 15, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy. 

A survey has found 88 percent of Vietnamese saying the Covid-19 situation is improving and 97 percent trusting the government’s handling of the epidemic. 

The survey by British market research and data analytics firm YouGov, which polled people in 26 countries and territories between May 5 and 13, found Vietnam’s positive outlook second only to mainland China’s, where 89 percent of people said the situation was getting better.

In Taiwan too, 88 percent said the situation was improving, followed by Thailand (87 percent) and Italy (83 percent).

People were most pessimistic in Mexico, where 60 percent said the situation was worsening. The rate was 55 percent in the Philippines and 53 percent in India.

The confidence in the U.S., the world's worst hit country, is quite low, with only 42 percent thinking things were getting better.

Vietnamese also overwhelmingly trusted the Covid-19 reporting in their country, with 89 percent of respondents saying they either "completely" or "somewhat" trusted the media as of May 13, the highest among all surveyed countries and territories.

It was followed by Malaysia (82 percent), Singapore (75 percent) and the Philippines (72 percent).

In countries like France, Italy, the U.K., and the U.S., less than 50 percent trusted the media on Covid-19.

Vietnamese also had great trust in the government, with 97 percent, the highest of any country, believing it was handling the crisis "very" or "somewhat" well. It was followed by Malaysia (93 percent) and Taiwan and India (90 percent).

Again, developed nations had least trust in their governments, with France, Poland and the U.S. bringing up the bottom.

In another survey in April by multinational market research firm Ipsos, 80 percent of Vietnamese respondents said they believed the economy would recover quickly post-Covid-19, the highest rate in any of the 15 countries polled, followed by China (68 percent).

Vietnam, with a population of over 96 million and sharing a land border with China, where the first novel coronavirus cases were reported last year, has had only 324 confirmed cases and no fatalities.

The country has recorded no community transmission in over a month.