TY - JOUR T1 - Proactive response and innovative approaches to SARS-CoV-2 in Vietnam JF - BMJ Innovations JO - BMJ Innov SP - s1 LP - s6 DO - 10.1136/bmjinnov-2021-000712 VL - 7 IS - Suppl 1 AU - Nguyen Van Vinh Chau AU - Nguyen Tri Dung AU - Ronald Geskus AU - Nguyen Thanh Dung AU - Le Manh Hung AU - Pham Quang Thai AU - Tran Tan Thanh AU - Nguyen Thanh Truong AU - Lam Minh Yen AU - Guy Thwaites AU - Dang Duc Anh AU - Le Van Tan Y1 - 2021/03/01 UR - http://innovations.bmj.com/content/7/Suppl_1/s1.abstract N2 - Vietnam is a lower-income to middle-income country with a population of 97 million. In 2018, its gross domestic product per capita was US$2.566, and around US$150 per person were spent on healthcare. The healthcare system in Vietnam includes both public and private providers, with less than one doctor and two nurses per 1000 population. Public hospitals are divided into four levels: central, provincial, district and commune levels, and are responsible for providing healthcare for the majority of the residents in Vietnam.The country has a 1300 km border with China in the north, where SARS-CoV-2 first emerged.1 Therefore, Vietnam was at high risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection as the virus spread outside of China in early 2020. Yet, as of 23 February 2021, there have been only a total of 2401 reverse transcription (RT)-PCR-confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection with three major waves attributable to locally acquired infection (figure 1) and 35 deaths from the virus reported in Vietnam.2 The outbreak in the coastal city of Da Nang between July and August 2020 represented a major outbreak associated with community transmission.3 4 This was then followed by the detection of sporadic cases of community transmission in the last quarter of 2020. In the morning of 28 January 2021, after 55 days of no community transmission anywhere in the country, two cases of locally acquired infection were reported in two neighbouring provinces (Hai Duong and Quang Ninh). By the end of the same day, the number of infections climbed to 88, marking the beginning of the third wave of community transmission in Vietnam. Although as of 23 February 2021, a total 809 infections have been reported from the current outbreak, the epidemic curve is now falling (figure 1). Likewise, the number of provinces with ongoing community transmissions has decreased from 13 to … ER -