Hanoi (VNA) - Daily newspaper the New Zealand Heraldrecently ran an article on the factors that contributed to Vietnam’s successfulfight against COVID-19, with the country not having recorded a community infectionfor more than a month.

It quoted an expert from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute as saying thatthe success is down to clear communication from the Government, which also cameearly.

“Government warnings to residents were frank about the dangers of the coronavirusand the lack of broader medical and clinical resources if a large outbreak wereto take hold,” the expert said.

The article emphasised that massive, early, and large-scale testing alsocontributed to the country’s success.

Vietnam had only three labs in January that could test for COVID-19 but by Aprilhad 112.

“The steps are easy to describe but difficult to implement,” said Matthew Moore,a Hanoi-based official from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),adding that Vietnam “has been very successful at implementing them over and overagain.”

He has been trading information with the Vietnamese Government since the countryreported its first cases in January and said the country had “great confidence”in its Government.

Vietnam has reported 324 COVID-19 cases to date, with no fatalities. Some 263 patientshave recovered./.