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Vaccination drives stutter as new Covid-19 waves hit Vietnam, Thailand
- As Vietnam tells disease prevention staff to prepare for 30,000 infections, Thailand has seen cases rocket to 88,000 from just 7,000 at the start of the year
- Yet vaccination campaigns in the two countries, and elsewhere in the region, are struggling from a lack of supply and public scepticism
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Newlywed Nguyen Phuong Anh had been dreaming of starting a family in a virus-free Vietnam until she was jolted back to reality last week.
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One of her tenants, a medical student living a few floors beneath Anh, was told to isolate after visiting a public cancer hospital where a Covid-19 cluster was discovered.
For Anh, a 26-year-old cashier in Hanoi, it was too close for comfort.
“My husband and I had not made any contact with her, so we packed our stuff and went to stay at my grandma’s place instead,” Anh said. “It is quite scary to live in the same house like that.”
Having gained widespread praise for its measures in containing three waves of Covid-19, Vietnam – which has so far recorded one of the lowest levels of infections in the world and was one of only two Asian economies (alongside China) to have grown during 2020 – has been forced to head once more unto the breach in the fight against the virus.
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Since the end of April, more than 600 community infections have been recorded in the fourth wave of the virus to hit the country – accounting for about one sixth of the more than 3,650 cases registered since the beginning of the pandemic. Around 70,000 people are in quarantine.
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