Neither first nor second wave: countries that continue to succeed in managing the pandemic

Neither first nor second nor third wave. A small group of countries have managed to bypass all the projectiles the coronavirus pandemic has struck with, at least so far. New Zealand, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Australia, Norway and Finland are some examples.. Efficient management? Good luck? A closer look at some of the strategies adopted by these countries will give a better appreciation of their success.

Vietnam shares a 1,297-kilometer border with China and reported its first case of the coronavirus on January 23, 2020. Yet the country, dependent on tourism and with a population of 97.3 million, recorded some of the lowest numbers of infections (2,420) and deaths (35) from Covid-19 globally.

Vietnam’s success, according to Park Kidong, WHO Representative in that country, is largely attributed to three things: activating early response, aggressive contact tracing and investing in peacetime health. Regarding the first point, the country closed its schools and put travel restrictions in place in February, when the only cases of Covid-19 were rare and imported. On March 31, a 30-day nationwide lockdown was ordered to flatten the curve and subsequent movement restrictions were directed to cities and provinces with high incidence, and for short periods of time. To this was added the launch by the government of a clear and energetic communication campaign on the dangers of the disease.

In terms of contact tracing, Vietnam’s strategy turned out to be exceptionally comprehensive: it was based on by following the degrees of contact from F0 (the infected person) to F1 (those who have had close contact with F0), F2 (close contact with F1), and so on up to F5. More importantly, the government quickly launched Ncovi, a mobile application to track the spread of the virus using GPS data. But perhaps none of this would have been possible without the role of neighbors. Truong Huu Khanh, head of infectious diseases department at Ho Chi Minh Children’s Hospital told THE NATION that in Vietnam there is a strong culture of surveillanceand people are supposed to report their neighbors if they suspect they’ve done something wrong. “If an infected person is in the area, they will notify the authorities”, He said.

Last but not least, the country already had an action plan against the epidemic that saved weeks of work. Despite a modest average per capita income of $ 2,000, Vietnam has historically recorded very high levels of social development. Its life expectancy of 76.3 years is above the world average and is comparable to that of highly developed countries. Public health expenditure was recorded at 9.3% in the latest statistics published by the WHO, a figure much higher than that of many countries in South Asia.

New Zealand is the ultimate achievement. Like Vietnam, the country paid close attention to the threat of the virus in early 2020 and acted quickly to stop its spread, even reaching full eradication in July. “It was good science and excellent political leadership that made the difference”, said THE NATION Professor David Murdoch, Dean of the University of Otago, welcoming the management of the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, like most newspapers in the world.

According to the expert, a WHO report on the success of the quarantine in Wuhan made it clear that New Zealand’s approach should be to “Use all the chips from the start” and aim for the total elimination of the virus. Thus, in early March, after the borders were closed, the government introduced a four-step warning system based on the experience of forest fires. Level 4, corresponding to a nationwide lockdown and put in place on March 25, saved authorities time to complete a large testing and contact tracing operation.

With community transmission under control, life in New Zealand returned to almost normal in June, with the exception of one key element: the borders, which are still closed to almost all travelers. The geographic location of the country and its low population density they were also determining factors in its success in controlling the spread of the virus.

Thailand was the first country outside of China to register a case of the coronavirus and with a population of 70 million people, as of December 2020, it had only accumulated 4,000 infections and 60 deaths.

“Thailand’s numbers speak for themselves,” said WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, making the country a success story in closing statements from the World Health Assembly, which took place at the end of November. “It’s not an accident,” said the expert, “it’s because the country pledged 40 years ago to invest in their healthcare infrastructure and created a network of over one million villager volunteers to act as the eyes and ears of the healthcare system in their communities. “.

Moreover, the strategy behind Thailand’s success is based on the same basic elements as in the other countries: inversión en salud, una campaña de comunicación clara, severos controles fronterizos, un cierre corto y estricto, el uso generalizado de máscaras, y evitar interiores o espacios confinados, algo que se da fácilmente dado that el 49.3% of the population lives in rural areas –According to Statista– and spends most of the time outdoors. The country alsolearned from his experience in managing the SARS outbreak in 2003.

However, the efforts of the Thai government have been threatened by a recent increase in infections, linked to an outbreak in a group of migrant workers – mostly of Burmese descent – from a seafood market in Samut Sakhon province, near the capital Bangkok. This group has caused infections in more than half of the country’s provinces. Since then, cases have increased six-fold to 25,764 and deaths have climbed to 83. In any event, the numbers remain low compared to other countries and compared to their populations.

In Europe, a continent bastardized by the coronavirus, Finland is the country with the fewest cases per million inhabitants, followed by Norway, and in deaths per capita, the positions are reversed. The two countries achieved a coordinated response and adopted a more interventionist approach than neighboring Sweden. They both closed their borders, schools and universities in the first weeks of March, curtailed large-scale events, and launched mobile contact tracing apps. In Norway, the Prime Minister Erna Solberg He called his country’s response “the most forceful and interventionist steps we have ever taken in peacetime” and imposed a quarantine requirement on anyone arriving from abroad. In Finland, meanwhile, an emergency law forced people over 70 to practice social distancing and limit contact.

When the second wave hit the continent in the fall, Finland and Norway were on the verge of conducting large-scale testing and monitoring for local outbreaks. Face mask requirements or recommendations, which were resisted in the spring, began in August (Denmark, Norway) and September (Finland) when authorities tried to stop the resurgence of the virus without resorting to further closures.

Another reason for this relative success is that for Finns and Norwegians, social distancing comes naturally. If a remote location and one of the lowest population densities in Europe work in their favor in the fight against Covid-19, it also helps many people in these countries to enjoy personal space and solitude. In fact, as he said Reuters Mika Salminen, Director of the Finnish Public Health Authority, to his compatriots “They like to keep people a yard or more away, even in normal times, or they start to feel uncomfortable.”. “Space, contact with nature, silence and tranquility” are key aspects for living life to the full in Finland. THE NATION Hanna Kallioniemi, Finnish citizen.

You could say that Australia has experienced two waves of pandemic, one in March-April and another in July-August, although much milder than in most countries and it has already left the nightmare behind it: it has all but eliminated the virus from its territory, reporting new single-digit cases in recent weeks. But even as a precaution, the government continues to resort to short and sectored closures to prevent further outbreaks. On February 12, 2021, for example, the state of Victoria, whose capital is Melbourne, decreed a strict five-day lockdown following a Covid-19 outbreak with 13 local positives.

Like New Zealand, the country has chosen seal your borders quickly and firmly, and severely restrict the movement of interstate and, in some cases, intra-state travelers. He then turned to testing, contact tracing and social distancing, an approach that all of the success stories have taken.

However, perhaps most importantly, leaders from all ideological backgrounds persuaded Australians to take the pandemic seriously from the start and prepared them to relinquish civil liberties they never losteven during two world wars. “We said to the audience, ‘This is serious; we want your cooperation, ”said Marylouise McLaws, epidemiologist at the University of New South Wales in Sydney and WHO adviser to The Washington Post. “No matter who they vote for, most Australians would agree that their leaders really care about their constituents and follow the science.” added.