For the fourth consecutive day, no new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Vietnam. According to Vietnam Times and independent tallies, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases remains at 268 as of Monday, April 20.
The country has reported zero deaths and 202 recoveries.
(For the latest COVID-19 cases, check out our reportr COVID-19 case tracker link.)
Active cases went up from 65 to 66 on Sunday after one person reportedly tested positive again three days after she was discharged from the hospital.
A total of 206,253 coronavirus tests have been conducted in the country.
"So far there has been no new hotspot of new coronavirus transmission in the community, which is a positive sign,” said Tran Dac Phu, senior advisor at the Public Health Emergency Operations Center under the Health Ministry. “However, I insist that we are not allowed to let our guard down."
Around 63,000 people are currently quarantined in Vietnam, of whom around 11,500 are in quarantine zones, while the rest are self-isolated at home, according to Vietnamese newspaper VN Express International.
In trying to explain Vietnam’s relative success in dealing with the coronavirus, news and analysis platform The Diplomat points to the country’s proactive response to the threat despite limited resources.
“Vietnam’s model for containing the outbreak has been touted as a successful low-cost model,” said Minh Vu and Bich T. Tran in The Diplomat. “Whereas its neighbors, Taiwan and South Korea, could afford mass testing, Vietnam lacked the resources and instead opted for selective but proactive prevention. Aside from some common policy actions such as contact tracing, ramping up production of medical supplies, and installing checkpoints at airports, Vietnam found its success in proactiveness. Over the course of three months since the first case, Vietnam has not hesitated to restrict movements where needed, balancing overt caution with precision.”
In Southeast Asia, Indonesia currently has the most number of confirmed cases, with 6,575, with 582 deaths and 686 recoveries. The Philippines is next with 6,259 cases, 409 deaths, and 572 recoveries, followed by Malaysia with 5,389 cases, 89 deaths, and 3,197 recoveries.
For the latest COVID-19 cases, check out our reportr COVID-19 case tracker link.
For the latest news and updates on COVID-19, check out reportr.world/covid-19.
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