A health worker collects nasopharyngeal specimen from a woman in Đà Nẵng, Việt Nam. — VNA/VNS Photo Lê Lâm

HÀ NỘI — Foreign experts have praised Việt Nam’s response to the current COVID-19 outbreak that has caused the country’s first fatalities since the beginning of the pandemic.

In a BBC article published on August 8, Prof Michael Toole, an epidemiologist and principal research fellow at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne, Australia said: “Like in the first wave, Việt Nam has responded quickly and forcefully” when talking about the resurgence of the coronavirus in Đà Nẵng.

This central city sealed itself off from visitors after Patient 416 was recorded, the first case of local infection after 99 days without community transmission in Việt Nam.

Each resident is set to be tested for the virus, and a field hospital has been built as every resource is being used to slow the spread of the disease, according to the article.

Meanwhile, Hà Nội has closed down bars and karaoke parlours as an extra precaution, and several cities, including the capital and HCM City City, have made face masks compulsory again in public.

Prof Rogier van Doorn, director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit noted: “What was successful before is being done again. I'm again impressed.”

Dr Justin Beardsley, a senior lecturer in infectious diseases at Australia’s University of Sydney, told the BBC that Việt Nam showed exceptionally strong community engagement when it came to curbing the spread of the virus.

"There was big national pride about controlling the pandemic,” he added.

Dr Huong Le Thu, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the new deaths show there is transparency in reporting COVID-19 in Việt Nam and the previous record of no deaths until late July should have not been questioned in the first place.

All the fatalities so far have been patients with co-morbidities. — VNS