Vietnam’s Rapid Move on COVID: A Businessman’s Big Call
Businessman Phan Quoc Viet was halfway through his morning prayers—yes, even the needle-eyed monks were watching—when a sudden ringing on his phone made him pause and then sweep the entire country in his thoughts.
Late‑January Surprise
It was just after Lunar New Year, the day people turn their eyes to the sky and their stomachs to bánh chưng. Vietnam, still riding on the last wave of the Lunar Festival, had just counted its first two COVID cases. The room? A bustling pagoda in Tay Ninh, the warm, rice‑filled province that’s more spicy than your average coconut curry.
When the Ministry Calls
“The official said Vietnam needed to act fast,” Viet said, remembering the bail‑out not of money, but of medical kits. He runs Viet A Corp, a company that’s been pouring out test kits faster than a vending machine runs out of snacks. And now—East meets Washington—the government was pinging companies that know how to test. “Urgent help is on the line,” he told us.
Why Vietnam’s Numbers Look Cool Compared to the Rest
- Only 270 cases, zero deaths. That’s a tiny spreadsheet compared to the Philippines’ 8,000+ cases and 500 deaths.
- The country made a match whose population is roughly 96 million, bordering the land big enough to use a football field as a flag.
- They’re saying the government’s quick‑reaction plan is a textbook—in-and-out trip to techno‑tides.
What Experts Say
Public health experts interviewed by Reuters are giving Vietnam a snazzy gold medal for this.
- Pulling a “stop the lane” move—closing borders faster than a parking meter is replaced.
- Locking down tens of thousands like an impromptu gym boot‑camp.
- Scaling up tests and spy‑net software to track contacts—like a detective who can apply a magnifying glass to viral spread.
Matthew Moore’s Take
Matthew Moore, a US CDC official in Hanoi (not a baseball star, just the CDC), said: “These steps are easy to describe, but implementing them is harder than riding a unicycle blindfolded. Yet Vietnam’s team nailing it over and over again gives us great confidence.”
Looking Forward
With case numbers that low and deaths at zero, Vietnam’s economy is poised to bounce back faster than a rubber ball from a bouncing cannon. That’s a sky‑high chance compared to many wealthier nations that have opted for a “wait and see” monopoly.
In short: Vietnam’s breakthrough, thanks to a flotilla of project managers and a dash of entrepreneurial spirit, is making headlines like a superhero coffee shop opening during a lockdown.
Vietnam’s Covid‑Cautious Crusade
From a handful of labs to a veritable testing army, Vietnam swelled its Covid‑19 testing capacity from three in January to a staggering 112 labs by April. By Wednesday, the country had run 213,743 tests, with only 270 coming back positive. That’s a ratio of one case for every 791 tests—a world record, at least according to the data gathered by Reuters, and way ahead of Taiwan’s 140 tests per case.
What the numbers really mean… or not?
Reuters couldn’t double‑check the figures, and Vietnamese officials didn’t respond to our questions about how thorough the testing really is. Neither of the two leaders steering the country’s fight against the virus was available for comment. Even the WHO’s point‑person in Vietnam, Kidong Park, stayed silent.
Experts suggest that Vietnam’s success is a cocktail of:
- Strong, centralized decision‑making that can roll out policies quickly and without much fuss.
- An open market economy that lets business and science teams collaborate.
- A population that’s still fresh on the memory of past epidemics and ready to play along.
“It’s like a well‑run assembly line”
Guy Thwaites, director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City, swears by the efficiency of Vietnam’s approach. “It’s organised; we can make country‑wide policy decisions that get enacted quickly and efficiently without too much controversy,” he said. Thwaites’s lab, which has helped process tests, reported that the positive cases counted by the hospital are in line with government data. He added, “If there were any major, unreported community spread, we would have seen it. We have not.” The lab’s daily capacity jumped from about 100 to roughly 1,000 tests.
No spike in funeral homes? One funeral home says so
13 funeral homes in Hanoi told us they hadn’t noticed a rise in deaths. One of them highlighted that funeral calls dipped during the lockdown, largely because traffic accidents—one of Vietnam’s biggest death tolls—plummeted during that period.
“Almost nobody is old enough to be a Covid danger”
Harvard Medical School’s infectious diseases specialist, Todd Pollack, notes that less than 10 % of confirmed cases were aged 60+ —the group most at risk of dying from Covid‑19. He claims that every patient is closely monitored and receives excellent care. He draws a comparison to South Korea, which also rolled out widespread testing and maintained a low fatality rate of roughly 2 %. “If you apply that rate to Vietnam’s confirmed cases and factor in other things, you can see how they’ve avoided any deaths so far,” Pollack said.
Final verdict from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
Krutika Kuppalli, a physician and biosecurity fellow at Johns Hopkins, summed it up: “There is no way to know for sure, but they have done a great job with their response—testing, isolating and quarantining people.”
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP
Vietnam’s Quick‑Fire Move Against the COVID‑19 Curve
Picture this: it’s late February, the U.S. President is casually waving off the new coronavirus threat—gone are the buzzwords “danger” and “crisis.” Meanwhile, in the calm of a bustling Vietnamese lab, Viet and his team are already getting hands on the gear that’s essential for turning test kits into a factory‑grade production line.
Why Was This a Game‑Changer?
- While America and Germany were still juggling their own supply shortages, Viet’s crew was hunting for critical components—from test strips to microfluidic chips.
- These components weren’t just for a few kits; they were the building blocks for mass production.
- By importing from the U.S. and Germany, Vietnam sidestepped the domino effect that was hitting other continents.
Fast‑Track, Fast‑Meds
Think of it as a grocery store that’s already stocked “buy‑now delivery” for frazzled shoppers. While the rest of the world scrambled, Viet’s team had a clear path: source, assemble, and scale.
What’s the Bottom Line?
In a world where headlines were all about “waiting” and “caution,” Vietnam hit the brakes and accelerated—ramping up testing capacity right when it mattered most.
Vietnam’s New‑Age COVID Strategies
The “Fast‑Track” Test Kit Boom
Ultra‑Early Travel Cut-Off
When the first two COVID cases popped up, Vietnam hit the brakes on flights to and from Wuhan in just January 23—even before the WHO cautioned against travel bans. A week later, they shut down their 1,400‑km (870‑mi) China border, leaving only essential trade in.
Mask‑You‑Shall‑Wear‑It
By mid‑March, Vietnam mandated masks in public before many other nations. They ignored WHO’s “only if symptomatic” advice and turned their garment factories into hotbeds for producing surgical and cloth masks.
Outcome• Rapid local testing capacity• Early border closure• Nationwide mask rule ahead of the curveNo reply from the WHO on Vietnam’s decision‑making style—so that stays a mystery.
MASS QUARANTINE
Vietnam Goes Full Speed on COVID Testing
Picture this: Vietnam beefed up its testing while running a contact‑tracing marathon and locking down tens of thousands of people—many were Vietnamese folks who flew back from Europe and the U.S. to dodge the growing outbreaks there.
When Testing Got Real
By March 4th, Viet A Corp rolled out its tests, a big win after the country had slowly ramped up tests in the previous six weeks. Back then, cases kept hovering under 20, but by the second week of March, that number had more than doubled.
The Quarantine Quandary
Early March: Only a handful of the tens of thousands stuck in the army‑run quarantine centers actually got tested. Fast forward to early April: Testing numbers finally outpaced the number of people in those centers.
Health workers played investigator and detective, testing and re‑testing anyone with a suspicion. Those who came up negative on multiple tests were gradually let out. And many folks outside quarantine—who might have caught the virus—were also put under the microscope.
Leadership Snapshot
- Despite the health minister stepping down in November, Vietnam’s COVID response stayed on track.
- The interim hero? Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam—a Communist Party veteran with no public health background—but he’s winning hearts on social media for steering the nation’s task force.
- Both Dam and Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long declined interview requests—no words from the front lines.
That’s the lowdown on Vietnam’s blitz‑testing strategy—fast, bold, and a touch of political flair.
