The nation has shown an effective response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, even when there was no vaccine available, wrote Helge Berger, assistant director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s Asia and Pacific Department, in an article recently published on Indian online newspaper ThePrint.

In the article, Berger praises the country’s achievements against the COVID-19 pandemic, attributing the "key" to Vietnamese success to its strict quarantine measures, rapid testing, and swiftly tracing the source of the disease.

In addition to China, other countries in Asia, such as Vietnam, have shown that there is still a way to cope with the pandemic, even without a vaccine. Indeed, the nation has also allowed its economy to return to at least near a normal level, he emphasised.

The IMF official notes that the country’s pandemic prevention efforts can also be applied in low-income nations that rely on vaccines. Although, Berger describes how vaccines remain important to ensuring pandemic control, so that each economy, as well as the global economy in general, can return to normal operations.

Furthermore, Radio RFI of France also stated that the country is among the rare places in Asia to effectively control the COVID-19 pandemic. RFI quotes Dr. Truong Huu Khanh, head of the Department of Infections and Neurology of Children's Hospital 1, as saying that a key factor to Vietnamese success is previous experience in disease prevention gained by frequently dealing with illnesses such as hand, foot, and mouth disease, dengue fever, and encephalitis, in addition to the long-established preventive medicine system.

The country also moved to swiftly close its border with China after the initial COVID-19 outbreak was reported, thereby greatly slowing the spread of the disease. Indeed, the most important measure implemented was the thorough isolation of people entering from abroad.

Moreover, the country’s success in curbing COVID-19 outbreaks also comes from tracing close contacts (F1) with COVID-19 patients, in addition to those in close contact with F1 contacts (F2), for testing and quarantine when necessary. Therefore, the nation recorded very few infection cases within the community, with the risk of COVID-19 infections mainly coming from outside, such as imported cases.

According to RFI, due to the competent control of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown period lasting less than three months, the Vietnamese economy did not fall into recession in 2020 and was one of the few countries in the world to enjoy a positive growth rate of 2.9%.