How Vietnam won the first battle against COVID-19: collectivistic responses in a pandemic

Linh P DINH

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 pandemic has been happening in more than 200 countries and territories, urging application of health measures and prevention strategies all over the world. Despite limited resources and geographical proximity to Wuhan, China where coronavirus first outbroke, over the last few months, Vietnam’s low-cost model against COVID-19 has been a success with the number of infected staying under 420 cases, community infection being in control and no death due to COVID-19 recorded. The Government of Vietnam has been very timely in the pandemic prevention, issuing quick and decisive policy responses, and strictly applying health measures … The government’s pandemic prevention strategy has been a fit with Vietnamese society’s collectivism culture. That Vietnamese society is a collectivistic one has also brought the two means utilized by Vietnam’s government, which are mass media and grassroots management system, into full play in the country’s pandemic prevention. Though the government’s control strategy has certainly exerted constrains on people’s lives, that Vietnamese people complied with the government’s actions has been the main reason for Vietnam’s success in coping with the first wave of COVID-19.

KEYWORDS: COVID-19; Vietnam; prevention strategy; surveillance; first wave

Notes on contributors

Dinh Phuong Linh gained her BA degree in Sociology with top one score from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University (USSH, VNU) in 2011. After that, in 2012, she went to England and studied her Master of Science degree in Health and Social care at the University of Huddersfield, Yorkshire. After graduating with merit, she got back to Vietnam and started working as a lecturer at the Faculty of Sociology, USSH, VNU since 2013. She gained her PhD degree in sociology in 2018 with the thesis titled “Health dimensions of marital violence.” She was rewarded Certificate of Merit by the USSH’s rector for excellent result of this thesis. Her research interests include social security, health and gender studies. She has substantial experiences with research design as well as data collection and analysis.

Ho Thanh Tam gained his Master of History at the USSH in 2012 and then became a lecture on Vietnamese history at the Faculty of History (USSH) since 2013. From 2014 to 2018, he did his PhD degree in History with PhD thesis about the Religious policy of the Republic of Vietnam (1954-1975) which was highly evaluated by the Council of the USSH. He has several publications on national journal and papers presented at international conferences. From 2019 to present, he has a cooperation with the Faculty of History, University California Riverside (US) to do some research on gender history and environmental history in Vietnam.