HANOI – World Health Organisation (WHO) representative to Vietnam Park Ki-dong praised the country’s achievements in Covid-19 prevention and control in an interview given to the Vietnam News Agency on January 22.
“Although Vietnam is a country with large, ageing population and lower middle-income economy, is close to China, and has land border crossings with multiple countries, it has been managing the Covid-19 outbreaks effectively, keeping the number of cases, including deaths, relatively lower than those of other countries,” he said
The cumulative number of confirmed cases per 1 million people remains about 16 so far, and the cumulative number of deaths per 1 million people is about 0.4 so far, he cited.
“These are the lowest figures among 15 countries with populations of more than 90 million,” he said.
Though Vietnam has been enjoying the a period in “peace” with no reported cases of community transmission, he noted that the Covid-19 pandemic is accelerating its resurgence in many countries and imported cases are being reported almost every day. New community transmission cases in the country can happen anytime at any place, he warned.
In this context, Vietnam needs to set dual objectives of disease control and economic development, the so-called “safe coexistence with Covid-19”.
He recommended that while pursuing economic activities, the country should remain vigilant. “Everybody should practise basic infection prevention measures in their daily lives, such as hand washing, mask wearing, physical distancing and avoiding places with high risks of transmission – crowds, closed spaces and close-contact settings,” he said.
The health sector should be able to detect any new suspected outbreak as early as possible and apply measures to suppress a new outbreak if it occurs, he added.
Regarding Covid-19 vaccines, Park stated that as of January 19, 237 candidate vaccines are under development globally. Of these, 64 are either under clinical trial, in phase three, or being authorised for emergency use in some countries. Some vaccines are under review of WHO’s emergency use listing.
WHO recognises Vietnam’s active participation in this global effort with a candidate vaccine being developed in the country, and acknowledges that one of them is already undergoing clinical trial phase one, while others have shown good progress on starting clinical trials soon. This is really impressive, he said.
“It is a pride of biotechnology in the country,” he asserted.
One year since the first case of Covid-19 confirmed in the country (January 23, 2020), thanks to the effective implementation of key measures in the prevention and control of the pandemic, the number of infections in Vietnam stand at only 1,548, including 35 deaths. – Bernama, January 25, 2021
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