Coronavirus disease 2019 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a global health crisis. Many countries are still suffered from this unprecedented outbreak whereas Vietnam overcomes it and tries to connect to other countries for economic development. This report highlights key measures that Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) applied to control the COVID-19 outbreak. The national strategies were promptly and clearly stated by the government, including preventing imported cases, early detecting new possible cases and their contacts, isolating confirmed cases and their first contacts, identifying areas affected by COVID-19 and rapidly performing interventions for the outbreak control. From these strategies, tracking, testing and treating were implemented as the three main groups of activities to control the outbreak in HCMC. Moreover, the existing healthcare structure, support from non-healthcare organizations and citizens, self production of COVID-19 test kits and effective treatment of severe cases were the key factors contributing the successful story of Vietnam.