The MCO has been reinstated. 40 000 active COVID-19 cases still active in this country, 20% of the total cases nationwide. Among them are 707 men, women and children – dead.

A year since YPC started reporting on the COVID-19 situation, we seem to have dug a deeper hole than where we were at originally. While Malaysia has shown glimpses of world-class management of the pandemic internally, poor and often confusing health informatics, disappointing examples by people of influence as well as double standards have led to a protracted war of attrition.

I get it: it’s hard to continue on this path of social distancing and good hygiene practice while there is so much holes in the dam. It’s easy to question whether what we are fighting for is worth its while. With that in mind, we bring you two stories today – stories that bring hope as countries rose to fight against the pandemic, united and committed to the goal at hand.

Vietnam: Fight COVID like the enemy

An often overlooked nation in Southeast Asia, Vietnam’s success is compounded with the fact that they share a large land border with China, the first country to experience the pandemic threat of the virus. In addition, this almost becomes a David versus Goliath scene when we consider that they are a lower-income country with significantly slower progress in technology development.

Vietnam’s response to the coronavirus was initiated even before the WHO sounded the global alarm. The Vietnam government recognized the threat of the coronavirus as a direct enemy of national security, and made the decision to protect public health before the economy, having made a public statement as early as January 27, 2020.

Vietnam’s testing protocol was systematic and swift – first targeting people with travel history, moving on towards close contacts and symptomatic individuals, before moving on towards hotspot areas with high human traffic. These preventive measures ensured that the curve never rose exponentially for long, with the country’s last spike of cases recorded between July and September last year.

As of today, Vietnam stands as a living lesson that prevention is indeed better than cure, with only 35 deaths (0.36 per million capita) and a total of 83 active cases nationwide, maintaining that policy with new and expanding regulations to limit inbound flights from countries with the new virus variant.