Contact Tracing and Strategic Testing

Aside from their immediate action, what ultimately proved key to Vietnam's success was its strategic testing and effective contact tracing. Once a patient tests positive for COVID-19, everyone who came in close or had prolonged contact with the said patient would immediately undergo testing and is placed in isolation in a hospital or a government facility, depending on whether they were positive or not. Meanwhile, the people who were in contact with the said individuals are placed in home quarantine for two weeks as well. 

Recently, Vietnam has seen a resurgence from the virus after 99 days of zero local transmission. Immediately, after a local case was reported in Da Nang city, the government had tested 100 individuals who came in contact with the said patient. All of whom tested negative and half were placed in isolation. With one positive resident, the country placed the city in lockdown and was quick to close all non-essential establishments and all residents totalling to 1.1 million are set to be tested.

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South Korea, on the other hand, made use of its vast resources and strong healthcare system. Instead of placing the country under lockdown, they relied on mass testing, with more than 600 testing centres spread all over the country that has the combined capacity of conducting 15,000 to 20,000 tests per day. Patients who tested positive were immediately placed in isolation. To reinforce the hospitals' capability to treat said patients, the government recruited more than 2,000 healthcare professionals as well as acquired the necessary hospital equipment. They also designated hospitals to care for COVID-19 positive patients and suspected cases only. While other hospitals only cater to inpatients that have tested negative from the virus. Meanwhile, South Korea's effective utilisation of experienced epidemiological services intelligence officers paved the way for the meticulous and exhaustive contract tracing of suspected positive cases. 

Flattening The Curve

Similar to the rest of the world, New Zealand also placed itself in a country-wide lockdown at the beginning of April after their COVID-19 positive cases ballooned to 600 confirmed cases. Three weeks after the lockdown, New Zealand eased restrictions and allowed the reopening of establishments as well as public transport. By the first week of May, 84 per cent of 1479 confirmed and probable cases had fully recovered from the virus. The island country then went on for a 102-day streak with zero local transmission. As of writing, New Zealand is still dealing with 96 active cases, the majority of which are from two cities–Auckland and Counties Manukau.

Immediately after discovering that a family of four from Auckland had contracted the virus, the entire city was placed on Alert Level 3, with travel being heavily restricted, while the government is conducting a city-wide contact tracing and targeted testing. Meanwhile, the rest of the country is in Alert Level 2 with physical distancing in place and the wearing of masks in public places is imposed. They also launched NZ COVID Tracer QR code just this week to further track the whereabouts of customers for easier and faster contract tracing.

Meanwhile, in China, restrictions have been eased from the previous total lockdown after cases have lowered to only less than 600 cases as of writing. Back in February, China has reported a whopping 14,000 new cases in just a single day. Flattening the curve didn't come easy though as Chinese officials imposed strict quarantine measures, putting the city of Wuhan and then later, the entire province of Hubei, in lockdown which was unheard of at that time.

How did it work? Their lockdown is completely different from ours and those of other countries, with every citizen barred from setting foot outside of their homes while all necessities such as food and water were delivered to their homes by the local government unit. It wasn't an easy decision to make as it was put in place just days before the much-celebrated Chinese New Year–but it was necessary. Such measures effectively slowed down the spread of the virus not only to the rest of Mainland China but to the rest of the world as well. 

These countries had proven that there are ways to combat the ongoing pandemic. But generally, all of them created systems and courses of action that work and best fit their country and resources at hand. They stuck with it relentlessly and have remained on full alert if and when COVID-19 comes back banging on their doors.

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