{"id":5308,"date":"2021-06-05T17:48:16","date_gmt":"2021-06-05T17:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5308"},"modified":"2021-06-05T17:48:16","modified_gmt":"2021-06-05T17:48:16","slug":"vietnam-defied-the-experts-and-sealed-its-border-to-keep-covid-19-out-it-worked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5308","title":{"rendered":"Vietnam defied the experts and sealed its border to keep Covid-19 out. It worked."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“As the pandemic took hold last year, travel restrictions quickly proliferated \u2014 they were the second-most-common policy governments<\/a> adopted to combat Covid-19. According to one review<\/a>, never in recorded history has global travel been curbed in \u201csuch an extreme manner\u201d: a reduction of approximately 65 percent<\/a> in the first half of 2020. More than a year later, as countries experiment with vaccine passports<\/a>, travel bubbles<\/a>, and a new round of measures to keep virus variants at bay<\/a>, a maze of confusing, ever-changing restrictions remains firmly in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But few countries have gone as far as Vietnam, a one-party communist state with a GDP per capita of $2,700<\/a>. The Haiphong checkpoints timed for Tet were the equivalent of closing off Los Angeles to Americans ahead of Thanksgiving \u2014 within a country that was already nearly hermetically sealed. Last March, the government canceled all inbound commercial flights for months on end, making it almost impossible to fly in, even for Vietnamese residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, flights are limited to select groups, like businesspeople or experts, from a few low-risk countries. Everybody who enters needs special government permission<\/a> and must complete up to 21 days of state-monitored quarantine with PCR tests. (Positive cases are immediately isolated in hospitals, regardless of disease severity.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This strict approach to travel, global health experts say, is directly connected to Vietnam\u2019s seeming defeat of Covid-19. Thirty-five people have reportedly died in total, and a little more than 2,700 have been infected with the virus during three small waves that have all been quickly quashed. Even on the worst days of the pandemic, the country of 97 million<\/a> has never recorded more than 110 new cases \u2014 a tiny fraction of the 68,000 daily case high in the United Kingdom, which has a population one-third smaller than Vietnam, or the record 300,000-plus cases per day only the US and India<\/a> managed to tally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, Vietnam\u2019s economy even grew 2.9 percent<\/a>, defying economists\u2019 predictions and beating China<\/a> to become the top performer in Asia<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Vietnam\u2019s travel restrictions \u2014 supported by other measures, including enforced quarantining and contact tracing \u2014 help explain the country\u2019s apparent mastery over the virus.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“it\u2019s now clear that the well-meaning advice and previous research findings didn\u2019t match up with the situation the world was facing in early 2020. The new virus was different \u2014 more contagious and harder to stop. SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted prior to the onset of symptoms, if they ever occur \u2014 while with SARS and Ebola, for example, people are only contagious when they are very ill or symptomatic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new coronavirus contagion inspired drastic measures. After China locked down Wuhan in January 2020, a move many called \u201cdraconian<\/a>,\u201d countries around the world scrambled and experimented with their own travel restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only a few, though, did something that \u201cseemed unfathomable\u201d prior to the pandemic, said University of Hong Kong public health professor Karen Gr\u00e9pin: They completely closed their borders. It was an approach experts had no evidence for. \u201cNo one [had] modeled out a scenario in which borders would be shut,\u201d she said, and stay shut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet that\u2019s essentially what happened in Vietnam \u2014 and in a few states or regions, mostly islands including Taiwan and New Zealand, that have virtually eliminated the virus.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“where Western countries introduced travel restrictions late, targeted their measures at countries with confirmed Covid-19 cases (or variants<\/a> now), made quarantine optional or didn\u2019t enforce it, and allowed loopholes (like excluding certain groups from travel restrictions, or letting people arriving over land avoid quarantine), Vietnam walled itself in.While Western countries continue to roll measures back whenever case counts come down<\/a>, Vietnam has kept its wall up \u2014 even during periods when the country recorded zero new coronavirus cases.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The restrictions also appear to work best if they\u2019re implemented when they most seem like overkill, said London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine epidemiologist Mark Jit<\/a>. That is, before (or after) community transmission takes place, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe natural thing is to think, \u2018When we have a big problem, there are many Covid cases, that\u2019s the point when we need to start doing a lot of things.\u2019 But for travel restrictions \u2014 these are the solution to stop the problem from happening in the first place,\u201d Jit explained. \u201cIt seems obvious in retrospect, but it\u2019s very paradoxical.\u201d”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“\u201c[The] two countries taking the quickest action are Taiwan and Vietnam \u2014 they shared the same reasons: geographical proximity to and distrust in China,\u201d”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Contact tracing became so widespread that the population now speaks the language of epidemiologists”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When a single person tests positive, it can trigger a targeted lockdown<\/a>, \u201cisolating a large area when the fire is big, isolating a small area when the fire is small,\u201d Mai Tien Dung, the chair of the Office of the Government, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In practice, this meant that last February, just as Lunar New Year travel and Vietnam\u2019s third wave was picking up, a Hanoi apartment block, where more than 1,000 people live, closed down one evening after a woman tested positive for the virus. The entrances were barricaded and guarded by police as hundreds of residents spilled out, masked and social distancing, waiting for a free Covid-19 test.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“More than a year later, Vietnam\u2019s success with keeping case counts, hospitalizations, and deaths low laid bare the arrogance and faulty assumptions<\/a> that went into determining which countries would win or lose in their battles with the virus. With the exception of short-lived, targeted lockdowns, life in Vietnam today largely resembles the Before Times in a way many Westerners can only envy. People go to bars, share drinks with friends, and enjoy live music. Restaurants and cafes are open. Children attend school and see their grandparents in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The population never experienced the disorientation, economic pain, and mental health toll of rolling national lockdowns. Hospitals never buckled under the strain of masses of coronavirus patients. Kids didn\u2019t miss a year of school. (There was a brief nationwide social distancing<\/a> order last April when all schools were shut for three weeks.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vietnam is also one of a handful of countries whose economies grew in 2020″<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“because the virus was quickly contained internally, the domestic economy rebounded, just as Thanh and his colleagues had hoped. Manufacturing continued, and exports grew by 6.5 percent<\/a> \u2014 not far off from the usual export turnover increase of 8 percent, according to Thanh.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Vietnam\u2019s early, quick response to Covid-19 was inspired, in part, by the country\u2019s shared border with China. But what other countries need to learn is that, in a globalized world, they share borders with China, too.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/22346085\/covid-19-vietnam-response-travel-restrictions<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“As the pandemic took hold last year, travel restrictions quickly proliferated \u2014 they were the second-most-common policy governments adopted to combat Covid-19. According to one review, never in recorded history has global travel been curbed in \u201csuch an extreme manner\u201d: a reduction of approximately 65 percent in the first half of 2020. More than a year later, as countries experiment with vaccine passports, travel bubbles, and a new round of measures to keep virus variants at bay, a maze of confusing, ever-changing restrictions remains firmly in place.<\/p>\n

But few countries have gone as far as Vietnam, a one-party communist state with a GDP per capita of $2,700. The Haiphong checkpoints timed for Tet were the equivalent of closing off Los Angeles to Americans ahead of Thanksgiving \u2014 within a country that was already nearly hermetically sealed. Last March, the government canceled all inbound commercial flights for months on end, making it almost impossible to fly in, even for Vietnamese residents.<\/p>\n

Today, flights are limited to select groups, like businesspeople or experts, from a few low-risk countries. Everybody who enters needs special government permission and must complete up to 21 days of state-monitored quarantine with PCR tests. (Positive cases are immediately isolated in hospitals, regardless of disease severity.)<\/p>\n

This strict approach to travel, global health experts say, is directly connected to Vietnam\u2019s seeming defeat of Covid-19. Thirty-five people have reportedly died in total, and a little more than 2,700 have been infected with the virus during three small waves that have all been quickly quashed. Even on the worst days of the pandemic, the country of 97 million has never recorded more than 110 new cases \u2014 a tiny fraction of the 68,000 daily case high in the United Kingdom, which has a population one-third smaller than Vietnam, or the record 300,000-plus cases per day only the US and India managed to tally.<\/p>\n

Last year, Vietnam\u2019s economy even grew 2.9 percent, defying economists\u2019 predictions and beating China to become the top performer in Asia.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Vietnam\u2019s travel restrictions \u2014 supported by other measures, including enforced quarantining and contact tracing \u2014 help explain the country\u2019s apparent mastery over the virus.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“it\u2019s now clear that the well-meaning advice and previous research findings didn\u2019t match up with the situation the world was facing in early 2020. The new virus was different \u2014 more contagious and harder to stop. SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted prior to the onset of symptoms, if they ever occur \u2014 while with SARS and Ebola, for example, people are only contagious when they are very ill or symptomatic.<\/p>\n

The new coronavirus contagion inspired drastic measures. After China locked down Wuhan in January 2020, a move many called \u201cdraconian,\u201d countries around the world scrambled and experimented with their own travel restrictions.<\/p>\n

Only a few, though, did something that \u201cseemed unfathomable\u201d prior to the pandemic, said University of Hong Kong public health professor Karen Gr\u00e9pin: They completely closed their borders. It was an approach experts had no evidence for. \u201cNo one [had] modeled out a scenario in which borders would be shut,\u201d she said, and stay shut.<\/p>\n

Yet that\u2019s essentially what happened in Vietnam \u2014 and in a few states or regions, mostly islands including Taiwan and New Zealand, that have virtually eliminated the virus.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“where Western countries introduced travel restrictions late, targeted their measures at countries with confirmed Covid-19 cases (or variants now), made quarantine optional or didn\u2019t enforce it, and allowed loopholes (like excluding certain groups from travel restrictions, or letting people arriving over land avoid quarantine), Vietnam walled itself in. While Western countries continue to roll measures back whenever case counts come down, Vietnam has kept its wall up \u2014 even during periods when the country recorded zero new coronavirus cases.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“The restrictions also appear to work best if they\u2019re implemented when they most seem like overkill, said London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine epidemiologist Mark Jit. That is, before (or after) community transmission takes place, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe natural thing is to think, \u2018When we have a big problem, there are many Covid cases, that\u2019s the point when we need to start doing a lot of things.\u2019 But for travel restrictions \u2014 these are the solution to stop the problem from happening in the first place,\u201d Jit explained. \u201cIt seems obvious in retrospect, but it\u2019s very paradoxical.\u201d”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“\u201c[The] two countries taking the quickest action are Taiwan and Vietnam \u2014 they shared the same reasons: geographical proximity to and distrust in China,\u201d”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Contact tracing became so widespread that the population now speaks the language of epidemiologists”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“When a single person tests positive, it can trigger a targeted lockdown, \u201cisolating a large area when the fire is big, isolating a small area when the fire is small,\u201d Mai Tien Dung, the chair of the Office of the Government, said.<\/p>\n

In practice, this meant that last February, just as Lunar New Year travel and Vietnam\u2019s third wave was picking up, a Hanoi apartment block, where more than 1,000 people live, closed down one evening after a woman tested positive for the virus. The entrances were barricaded and guarded by police as hundreds of residents spilled out, masked and social distancing, waiting for a free Covid-19 test.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“More than a year later, Vietnam\u2019s success with keeping case counts, hospitalizations, and deaths low laid bare the arrogance and faulty assumptions that went into determining which countries would win or lose in their battles with the virus. With the exception of short-lived, targeted lockdowns, life in Vietnam today largely resembles the Before Times in a way many Westerners can only envy. People go to bars, share drinks with friends, and enjoy live music. Restaurants and cafes are open. Children attend school and see their grandparents in person.<\/p>\n

The population never experienced the disorientation, economic pain, and mental health toll of rolling national lockdowns. Hospitals never buckled under the strain of masses of coronavirus patients. Kids didn\u2019t miss a year of school. (There was a brief nationwide social distancing order last April when all schools were shut for three weeks.)<\/p>\n

Vietnam is also one of a handful of countries whose economies grew in 2020”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“because the virus was quickly contained internally, the domestic economy rebounded, just as Thanh and his colleagues had hoped. Manufacturing continued, and exports grew by 6.5 percent \u2014 not far off from the usual export turnover increase of 8 percent, according to Thanh.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Vietnam\u2019s early, quick response to Covid-19 was inspired, in part, by the country\u2019s shared border with China. But what other countries need to learn is that, in a globalized world, they share borders with China, too.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[588,409,483,826],"class_list":["post-5308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-corona","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-vietnam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5309,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5308\/revisions\/5309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}