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Delta variant lockdown7/27/2023 ![]() Until recently the issue was strictly supply, but a succession of donations in July - while the health service scrambled to deal with its first major outbreak - has seen doses pile up. By late July 2021, just 0.5 per cent of the population are fully vaccinated and 4.7 per cent have received one dose, in contrast to Cambodia with a single-dose rate of 42 per cent, and both Thailand and Indonesia at over 16 per cent. Vietnam lags behind all other ASEAN member states. While cases mount, vaccine rollout proceeds at a glacial pace. Through swiftly negotiated contracts, foreign aid and the global vaccine access mechanism COVAX, Vietnam has now successfully ordered 125 million doses as it strives to vaccinate 70 per cent of its population by May 2022.Įarlier reluctance to enter the global vaccine market has meant Vietnam is further back in the queue than its neighbours, and most promised doses won’t arrive until at least the last quarter of this year. Within weeks, Sputnik V, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Sinopharm and Johnson & Johnson were approved for emergency use. This outbreak, and a shortfall in AstraZeneca supply, forced a rapid change in vaccine policy. Between late April and late July 2021, Vietnam recorded over 120,000 cases in 61 of its 63 localities and over 800 deaths, Ho Chi Minh City being the worst affected. ![]() Yet, despite escalating restrictions, cases continued to increase across the country. ![]() Initially, Vietnam managed to suppress localised outbreaks of Delta in Hanoi and Bac Giang province. Interventions that previously curbed community spread became inadequate to control outbreaks. The World Health Organization estimates that Delta is 55 per cent more transmissible than Alpha, which was itself around 50 per cent more transmissible than the original virus. The emergence of the Delta variant in Vietnam at the end of April 2021 changed everything. Healthcare workers, customs officers, diplomats, military personnel, police, tourist workers and teachers were given higher priority than people over 65 or those with chronic health problems at the highest risk of dying from the virus. The first batch of 117,600 doses arrived late February and was distributed to priority groups reflective of Vietnam’s ‘zero COVID-19’ standing. It initially secured 30 million doses to be delivered in batches throughout 2021 - enough to vaccinate just 15.5 per cent of the population. Throughout this period the Vietnam government formally committed to just one foreign vaccine, Oxford-AstraZeneca. The country had already successfully supressed two outbreaks and in February and March 2021, it would suppress a third, all the while developing superior testing and healthcare infrastructure. In December 2020, while other countries in the region fought to secure vaccine imports, Vietnam commenced a phase I trial on its most promising product to date, the subunit vaccine Nanocovax. Tran Van Phuc, a medical commentator for one government newspaper, wrote in December 2020 that ‘it might come out much more slowly than its international peers, but if we can do it, waiting for a homemade vaccine is not a bad option’. Seeing an opportunity to establish a valuable foothold in the biotech sector, Vietnam invested in four indigenous vaccines. The government baulked at the cost and the length of the queue and went on record to say it would be better to produce vaccines domestically. But with low rates of infection, there was little urgency to procure expensive new vaccines from abroad. Vietnam’s success can be attributed to good public health, focusing on prevention rather than costly medical cures. By April 2021 Vietnam had reported just 35 COVID-19-related deaths. It was the only economy in Southeast Asia to experience positive economic growth in 2020. While many countries were enduring protracted lockdowns and reporting thousands of deaths per day, Vietnam was open for business, internally at least. ![]() When Vietnam became one of the first countries to report human-to-human transmission, it was assumed that a widespread outbreak was inevitable.īut through comprehensive testing, tracing, and quarantining in centralised facilities, and strict border control and proactive public health policies, Vietnam defied all expectations and eliminated community transmission. In January 2020, once the scale of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan became clear, large outbreaks were expected to follow in neighbouring Asian states. Until recently, Vietnam’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic had been a remarkable success story. Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the PacificĪuthor: Barnaby Flower, Oxford University
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