The COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. The number of confirmed cases is the highest total in Southeast Asia, and the 13th highest in the world. Hanoi is the most affected locale with 1,649,654 confirmed cases and 1,238 deaths, followed by Ho Chi Minh City with 628,736 cases and 20,476 deaths; however, the Vietnamese Ministry of Health has estimated that the real number of cases may be four to five times higher.
On 31 December 2019, China announced the discovery of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan; the news had circulated on Vietnamese media by early January 2020. The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Vietnam on 23 January 2020, when two Chinese people in Ho Chi Minh City tested positive for the virus. Early cases were primarily imported until local transmission began to develop in February and March. Clusters of cases were later detected in Vĩnh Phúc, Hải Dương, and three other major cities, with the first death on 31 July 2020.
During 2020, the Vietnamese government's efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 were mostly successful. The country pursued a zero-COVID strategy, using contact tracing, mass testing, quarantining, and lockdowns to aggressively suppress transmission of the virus. Vietnam suspended the entry of nearly all foreigners from 22 March 2020 until 17 November 2021 to limit the spread of the virus. The measure did not apply to diplomats, officials, foreign investors, experts, and skilled workers. On 5 January 2021, the government strengthened prevention and control of COVID-19, particularly through border control, with the principle of "protecting people's health first." Individuals entering Vietnam had to isolate for at least 14 days if they were unvaccinated, or seven days if they had been fully vaccinated, and were contained in government-funded quarantine facilities. Specially designated individuals such as diplomats were exempt.
Vietnam experienced its largest outbreak beginning in April 2021, with over 1.2 million infections recorded by that November. This led to two of its largest cities, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, and around a third of the country's population coming under some form of lockdown by late July. A shortage of the AstraZeneca vaccine supply in the country, along with some degree of complacency after successes in previous outbreaks, as well as infections originating from foreign workers, were considered to have contributed to the outbreak. In response, government-mandated quarantine for foreign arrivals and close contacts to confirmed cases were extended to 21 days, and accompanying safety measures were also increased. The emergence of the Omicron variant brought about a rapid rise in infections in early 2022, although drastically fewer deaths were reported due to high vaccination rates in the country. Infection rates dropped and stabilised throughout 2022 and 2023, leading to the end of COVID-19's classification as a severe transmissible disease in June 2023.
Although the pandemic has heavily disrupted the country's economy, Vietnam's GDP growth rate has remained one of the highest in Asia-Pacific, at 2.91% in 2020. Due to the more severe impact of the outbreak in 2021, Vietnam's GDP grew at a slower rate, at 2.58%.
Vaccinations commenced on 8 March 2021 with a total of 200,179,247 administered vaccination doses reported by 12 March 2022. The Vietnamese Ministry of Health has approved the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine, the Sputnik V vaccine, the Sinopharm BIBP vaccine, the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine, the Moderna vaccine, the Janssen vaccine, and the Abdala vaccine. Vietnam also approved Covaxin from Bharat Biotech. As of 13 March 2022, a total of 221,807,484 doses have arrived in Vietnam.
Background Novel infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, are a significant public health threat. Although human coronaviruses (CoVs) were known as major pathogens which caused respiratory illnesses, a new strain of coronavirus known as SARS-CoV caused an outbreak in 29 countries from 2002 to 2004. The outbreak, which infected 8,098 people and caused 774 deaths, Evidence showed that the virus may have originated from an animal coronavirus that found its way into the human population. indicated that animal coronaviruses could be dangerous to humans.
Although it is still unknown exactly where COVID-19 began, many early cases have been attributed to visitors to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, Hubei, China. The earliest known symptomatic person was later discovered to have become ill on 1 December 2019, but that person was apparently unconnected to the later wet-market cluster; an earlier case possibly occurred on 17 November. China reported the cluster on 31 December 2019, and the World Health Organization (WHO) issued its first report on the outbreak on 5 January 2020. A week later, the WHO confirmed that a novel coronavirus caused a cluster of respiratory illness reported earlier in Wuhan. On 20 January, the WHO and China confirmed that human-to-human transmission had occurred. WHO declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on 30 January, saying that its Wuhan investigation was finished and citing mounting evidence that the novel coronavirus had spread to 18 countries.
Vietnam has a history of managing pandemics; it was the second country (after China) to address the 2002–04 SARS outbreak and, after 63 cases and five deaths, was the first country to be declared SARS-free by the WHO. Since that outbreak, Vietnam had increased investment in its public-health infrastructure, developed a national public health emergency operations center and a national public health surveillance system, and maintained systems to collect public data. Since 2016, hospitals are required to report notifiable diseases to a central database within 24 hours so the Ministry of Health can track epidemiological developments nationwide. In collaboration with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Vietnam implemented an "event-based" surveillance program in 2018 which enables the public to report public-health issues. Officials can identify clusters of people with similar symptoms, which might indicate an outbreak.
With a population of nearly 100 million and millions of visitors from China, the country's largest trading partner, annually, Vietnam was initially perceived as likely to be hard-hit by the pandemic. When the country recorded its first two cases on 23 January 2020, it was among the first countries affected by COVID-19. Two weeks later, only 150 cases had been reported outside mainland China; ten were in Vietnam, however, making it one of the top-ten affected countries. By early 2021, Vietnam was one of the countries with the lowest case count and mortality per million inhabitants.
Epidemiology +WaveTimeNo. of casesDescriptionSumDomesticDeathThe first cases discovered in Ho Chi Minh City were two people from Wuhan (China). The disease then spread in 13 other localities.The epicenter was in Da Nang, with the source of infection purported to be from Hospital C in the city.This outbreak started in Hải Dương from a person who was found positive after entering Japan, and the true source of the infection is unknown. The epicenter was in Hải Dương; this local outbreak accounted for nearly 80% of the total number of cases.Numerous outbreaks were discovered in all localities. This surge occurred due to the more transmissible Delta and Omicron variants, and a change in COVID-19 response strategies.Số liệu Covid-19 tại Việt Nam VnExpressDelta variant threatens to overload Vietnam's healthcare system: experts VnExpressDaily COVID-19 update VnExpressChanging approach to COVID-19: Bringing life back to normal soon Daily COVID-19 update Bac Lieu Province Newspaper
Timeline
First cases
The first two confirmed cases in Vietnam, a Chinese man born in 1954 and his son, were admitted to Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City on 22 January 2020. The son was believed to have contracted the virus from his father (who flew from Wuhan on 13 January) when they met in Nha Trang on 17 January. The first cluster appeared in Son Loi Commune, Bình Xuyên District, Vĩnh Phúc, after several workers returned from a Wuhan training trip and infected people in close contact with them. The Vietnamese government locked down the district until 4 March to prevent further spread, the first large-scale lockdown outside China. Identifying cases early gave Vietnam some success in combating the virus. The first 16 cases were a cross-section of the population (infants, the elderly, and people with underlying conditions), which the country's medical system used as "an exercise" to prepare for the new virus.Việc phân tuyến và phác đồ điều trị COVID- 19 của Việt Nam phù hợp, hiệu quả. Bạch Mai Hospital. 21 February 2020
March 2020–2021: sporadic outbreaks and strict measures As the pandemic began to spread worldwide, COVID-19 cases in Vietnam also surged. On the evening of 6 March, the Hanoi Department of Health confirmed the capital's first case: a 26-year-old woman who had travelled to Europe, the country's 17th recorded case.Vietnam confirms 17th Covid-19 patient. VnExpress. 7 March 2020 During the afternoon of 20 March, the Ministry of Health reported two new COVID-19 patients (Vietnam's 86th and 87th): two female nurses at Bạch Mai Hospital with no history of contact with COVID-19 patients.Bước đầu xác định nguồn lây nhiễm chính ở BV Bạch Mai. Ministry of Health (Vietnam). 30 March 2020 In March and April 2020, the number of cases increased rapidly due to the large number of people coming from European countries and the appearance of clusters which included Bạch Mai Hospital, Ha Loi Commune in Hanoi, and the Buddha Bar in Ho Chi Minh City.
On 21 March 2020, Vietnam suspended entry for all foreigners effective the following midnight, and introduced a mandatory fourteen-day quarantine for all incoming Vietnamese citizens. The country imposed a fifteen-day nationwide lockdown on 1 April,HIỂU ĐÚNG về yêu cầu cách ly xã hội. Ministry of Health (Vietnam). 2 April 2020 when former Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc announced that COVID-19 had spread throughout Vietnam.Công bố dịch COVID-19 toàn quốc. Ministry of Health. 1 April 2020 The drastic epidemic-control measures had positive results, and the country did not confirm any cases of local transmission from mid-April to the end of July.Quốc tế đánh giá Việt Nam phòng chống đại dịch COVID-19 hiệu quả. Ministry of Health. 4 April 2020 Vietnam began loosening restrictions in May, again permitting domestic travel.
The country entered its second wave of infection when the Ministry of Health announced the 416th case in Da Nangthe first case with an unknown source in 99 days. On 28 July, Da Nang authorities locked down the city for 15 days. Hundreds of cases across the country connected to the Da Nang outbreak were detected, and the first death was recorded on 31 July. After two months Vietnam contained the disease for the second time and resumed almost all economic activity, including international commercial flights. Sporadic community infections continued in November and December, alarming the public and requiring increased measures.