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After Nearly Erasing COVID-19, Vietnam Grapples with a Spike

Ralph Jennings

   TAIPEI, TAIWAN - Vietnamese officials are rushing to control a sudden
   new outbreak of COVID-19 after reporting one of the world's most
   successful control efforts earlier in the year.

   Authorities in the Southeast Asian country sealed off the central coast
   tourist city Danang Sunday after two people tested positive for the
   deadly atypical pneumonia, domestic media reports say. The new spike in
   and near Danang had grown to 30 cases as of early Wednesday, mostly
   traced to a local hospital.

   People elsewhere in the economically booming country of 97 million
   worry that the Danang infections will spread outward and spark another
   nationwide shutdown like the one ordered for about a month through late
   April.

   "It could be another outbreak, and it's really sort of scared the
   Vietnamese, because they thought they'd gotten through it all, but as
   the rest of the world discovered, this thing spreads much quicker than
   you think," said Adam McCarty, chief economist with Mekong Economics in
   Hanoi.

   While Vietnam's latest figures still hardly match the hundreds of daily
   cases still being reported in much of the world, the country prides
   itself on throttling the disease earlier in the year with no deaths to
   date. Vietnam had gone without transmission for 99 days through
   Saturday and its domestic economy roared back to life by May.

   Halts to flights and strict quarantine rules have kept the overall
   caseload to 446 including the latest outbreak. As of Tuesday, 369
   people had recovered.

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