Leaders of friendship organizations of ASEAN member nations and China held a special video meeting on May 19 to discuss response to the COVID-19 pandemic and ways to boost people-to-people exchanges in the new situation.
Speaking at the event, President of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations (VUFO) Nguyen Phuong Nga shared Vietnam’s experience in combating COVID-19, with the motto “fighting the epidemic like fighting the enemy” kept in mind.
As the ASEAN Chair 2020, Vietnam has worked closely with other member states to contain the novel coronavirus through a unified, multi-sectoral and community-based approach, she said.
The ASEAN countries, in many ways, have cooperated closely with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and partners, including China, to produce prompt and effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nga added.
She urged the countries to maintain a peaceful, stable and cooperative environment in the region to push back the epidemic and economic recession.
Solidarity and mutual assistance are the key for all countries to overcome this difficult time, she said.
Nga went on to say that VUFO is committed to coordinating closely with friendship organizations of the ASEAN nations to enhance exchanges and foster partnership between them and China./.
Japanese, Singaporean newspapers praise Vietnam’s response to COVID-19
Vietnam is now reaping strategic gains from its nimble response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tan Hui Yee, Indochina Bureau Chief in Bangkok, wrote in an article published in The Strait Times on May 18.
Schools have reopened and buses are running as usual in the country, which has gone for a month without seeing community transmission of the coronavirus, he said, adding that investor interest – which shrivelled up early this year – is picking up again.
Vietnam’s export of face masks and test kits, meanwhile, could help cushion the larger economic impact of the pandemic, he wrote.
The article quoted Trent Davies, a Vietnam-based international business advisory manager at consultants Dezan Shira & Associates, as saying that everything was put on hold in the first month or two of the COVID-19 outbreak, but now his company is already receiving inquiries from interested investors about doing business in Vietnam.
“Being ahead of the curve, the ASEAN Chair [Vietnam] is in good stead to lead and shape regional responses to the pandemic,” Dr Huong Le Thu, Senior Analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, was quoted as saying.
“No country can recover on its own, but those in better shape and that emerge from this crisis relatively earlier will be in a better position – and also have strategic bandwidth – to take some leadership initiative,” she said.
Meanwhile, Japanese economics newspaper Nihon Keizai on May 19 published an analysis by Chief Market Economist Ueno Yasunari from Mizuho Securities highlighting the effectiveness of Vietnam’s measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Vietnam has a population of 97 million people but has only reported some 300 infections and zero fatalities, showing that the country’s way of containing the virus was more effective than elsewhere, he wrote.
What made Vietnam succeed was quarantining infected people from the early days and aggressively tracing those with whom they had contact, he explained./.
Vietnam yet to confirm COVID-19 patient infected while in Cambodia: Ambassador
Vietnam has yet to confirm when, where and how Patient 315 contracted the COVID-19, Ambassador to Cambodia Vu Quang Minh has said.
Vietnam, therefore, has still yet to confirm that the patient was infected while he was in Cambodia, and it initially only searched for and quarantined 17 people who had close contact with the man after he returned home, the diplomat told the Vietnam News Agency (VNA).
On May 16, VNA’s Viet Nam News quoted the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control as saying that the 39-year-old man returned to Vietnam from Siem Reap through southern Tay Ninh province on May 2 without any legal document.
On May 5, he tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 but on May 15 tested positive.
Though Vietnam has not yet affirmed that the patient became infected during his stay in Cambodia, it still quarantines suspected cases and announces part of the places he had travelled to so that those in contact with him can be alerted and report to Vietnamese authorities.
The Ministry of Health has been closely coordinating and exchanging information regularly with its Cambodian counterpart in an effort to fight the pandemic, Minh said.
“We laud Cambodia for its efforts and achievement in successfully curing all the 122 of its COVID-19 patients and keeping the country clear of new cases for 36 days, as reported by the Cambodian Health Ministry,” he said.
The Vietnamese Embassy and representative press agencies of Vietnam will hold a working session with the Cambodian Ministry of Health and Ministry of Information regarding the pandemic, especially in the context of it being basically contained in both countries, the diplomat added./.
Clear, early communication contributes to success in COVID-19 fight: NZ Herald
Daily newspaper the New Zealand Herald recently ran an article on the factors that contributed to Vietnam’s successful fight against COVID-19, with the country not having recorded a community infection for more than a month.
It quoted an expert from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute as saying that the success is down to clear communication from the Government, which also came early.
“Government warnings to residents were frank about the dangers of the coronavirus and the lack of broader medical and clinical resources if a large outbreak were to take hold,” the expert said.
The article emphasised that massive, early, and large-scale testing also contributed to the country’s success.
Vietnam had only three labs in January that could test for COVID-19 but by April had 112.
“The steps are easy to describe but difficult to implement,” said Matthew Moore, a Hanoi-based official from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), adding that Vietnam “has been very successful at implementing them over and over again.”
He has been trading information with the Vietnamese Government since the country reported its first cases in January and said the country had “great confidence” in its Government.
Vietnam has reported 324 COVID-19 cases to date, with no fatalities. Some 263 patients have recovered./.
Indonesia: No relaxation of large-scale social restriction policy
The Indonesian government has no plans to ease the enactment of the Large Scale Social Restriction (PSBB) policy in the immediate future, as the government is still focusing on the national mudik (homecoming) ban for the next two weeks to curb the spread of COVID-19, said President Joko Widodo.
Speaking at an online cabinet meeting on May 18, Widodo stressed that there is no relaxation of the PSBB policy, the public should not be mistaken that the government has begun to relax PSBB.
He asked the Chief of the Indonesian Police Force, General Idham Azis, as well as the Commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces, Marshall Hadi Tjahjanto, to ensure the effective enforcement of the mudik ban.
The President has also reminded that the mudik ban is only applicable to limit the mobility of people, not goods.
According to Widodo, the government is preparing PSBB easing scenarios and continues to monitor disease developments before making a decision on the time for applying.
Previously, on May 15, President Joko Widodo called on Indonesians “to live” with the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the new normal.
As of May 18, Indonesia confirmed 18,010 COVID-19 patients. The disease killed 1,191 persons in the country, while 4,324 cases were cured./.