COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam

The COVID-19 pandemic spread to Vietnam on 23 January 2020, when its first known case of COVID-19 was reported.

the country had 11,625,195 confirmed cases, 10,640,971 recoveries, and 43,206 deaths.  Hai Duong, as of February 2021 is the most-affected province with 647 confirmed cases.

## Background

Novel infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, are a significant public health threat. Although human coronaviruses (CoVs) were known as major pathogens which caused respiratory illnesses, a new strain of coronavirus known as SARS-CoV caused an outbreak in 29 countries from 2002 to 2004. The outbreak, which infected 8,098 people and caused 774 deaths, Evidence showed that the virus may have originated from an animal coronavirus that found its way into the human population. indicated that animal coronaviruses could be dangerous to humans.

Although it is still unknown exactly where COVID-19 began, many early cases have been attributed to visitors to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, Hubei, China. The earliest known symptomatic person was later discovered to have become ill on 1 December 2019, but that person was apparently unconnected to the later wet-market cluster; an earlier case possibly occurred on 17 November. China reported the cluster on 31 December 2019, and the World Health Organization (WHO) issued its first report on the outbreak on 5 January 2020. A week later, the WHO confirmed that a novel coronavirus caused a cluster of respiratory illness reported earlier in Wuhan. On 20 January, the WHO and China confirmed that human-to-human transmission had occurred. WHO declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on 30 January, saying that its Wuhan investigation was finished and citing mounting evidence that the novel coronavirus had spread to 18 countries.

Vietnam has a history of managing pandemics; it was the second country (after China) to address the 2002–04 SARS outbreak and, after 63 cases and five deaths, was the first country to be declared SARS-free by the WHO. Since that outbreak, Vietnam had increased investment in its public-health infrastructure, developed a national public health emergency operations center and a national public health surveillance system, and maintained systems to collect public data. Since 2016, hospitals are required to report notifiable diseases to a central database within 24 hours so the Ministry of Health can track epidemiological developments nationwide. In collaboration with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Vietnam implemented an "event-based" surveillance program in 2018 which enables the public to report public-health issues. Officials can identify clusters of people with similar symptoms, which might indicate an outbreak.

With a population of nearly 100 million and millions of visitors from China, the country's largest trading partner, annually, Vietnam was initially perceived as likely to be hard-hit by the pandemic. When the country recorded its first two cases on 23 January 2020, it was among the first countries affected by COVID-19. Two weeks later, only 150 cases had been reported outside mainland China; ten were in Vietnam, however, making it one of the top-ten affected countries. By early 2021, Vietnam was one of the countries with the lowest case count and mortality per million inhabitants.

## Cases

On 23 January 2020, Vietnam confirmed the first two cases of COVID-19, a Chinese man (#1) travelling from Wuhan to Hanoi to visit his son who lived in Vietnam, and his son (#2), who was believed to have contracted the disease from his father. They were hospitalized in Ho Chi Minh City. On 29 January, the son fully recovered and was discharged. His father was discharged on 12 February.

From 17 to 23 April, no new cases were confirmed. However, there were reports of cases who tested positive again after being discharged. On 24 April, two more cases were confirmed: both were Vietnamese students who came back from Japan and quarantined on arrival.

## Government response

|Stage|Number of case|Description||
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|style="background:#FFD500; color:black|Phase 1 (23 January – 25 February 2020)</td>|16|Cases reported are usually people who have had travel history to China.|
|style="background:#FF8000; color:white|Phase 2 (6 – 19 March 2020)</td>|69|The virus has spread globally, many cases reported are from other countries but it is still easy to trace spread and quarantine.|
|style="background:#FF2A00; color:white|Phase 3 (20 March – 21 April 2020)</td>|183|Infections in community, many cluster begins to appeared in high-density areas. The source of the infection is untraceable.|
|style="background:#FFD500; color:black|Phase 4 (22 April 2020 – ongoing)</td>|20|Even after the consistently decreasing rate of cases from community transmission, health officials remain cautious for importing a second wave through international travelers.|

## Praise

Vietnam has been seen by the global media as having one of the best-organised epidemic control programs in the world, along with Taiwan and South Korea.

Despite not having the latest technology, the country's response to the outbreak has received praise for its quick response.

## Infobox (pandemic)

- **name**: COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam
- **map1**: COVID-19 Pandemic Cases in Vietnam.svg
- **legend1**: **Map of the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam**:

_(as of 21 February 2021)_:
- **disease**: COVID-19
- **virus strain**: SARS-CoV-2
- **location**: Vietnam
- **first case**: Ho Chi Minh City
- **arrival date**: 23 January 2020
()
- **origin**: Wuhan, Hubei, China
- **confirmed cases**: 2,383
- **recovery cases**: 1,717
- **deaths**: 35