The COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam has resulted in 10,738,909 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 43,083 deaths. The number of confirmed cases is the highest total in Southeast Asia, and the 15th highest in the world. Hanoi is the most affected locale with 808,384 confirmed cases and 1,131 deaths, followed by Ho Chi Minh City with 568,772 cases and 20,437 deaths; however, the Vietnamese Ministry of Health has estimated that the real number of cases may be four to five times higher.On 31 December 2019, China announced the discovery of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan. The news of a “strange pneumonia” in China had been circulating on Vietnamese media since the beginning of January 2020. The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Vietnam on 23 January 2020, when two Chinese people in Ho Chi Minh City tested positive for the virus. Early cases were primarily imported until local transmission began to develop in February and March. Clusters of cases were later detected in Vĩnh Phúc, Hai Duong Province, and three other major cities, with the first death on 31 July 2020.During 2020, the Vietnamese government's efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 were mostly successful. The country pursued a zero-COVID strategy, using contact tracing, mass testing, quarantining, and lockdowns to aggressively suppress transmission of the virus. Vietnam suspended the entry of all foreigners from 22 March 2020 until 17 November 2021 to limit the spread of the virus. The measure did not apply to diplomats, officials, foreign investors, experts, and skilled workers. In January 2021, the government announced a stricter quarantine policy to "protect the country" during the 2021 Lunar New Year. Individuals entering Vietnam had to isolate for at least 14 days if they were unvaccinated, or seven days if they had been fully vaccinated, and were contained in government-funded quarantine facilities. Specially designated individuals such as diplomats were exempt.Since April 2021, Vietnam has been experiencing its largest outbreak to date, with over 1.2 million infections recorded by November. This has led to two of its largest cities, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, and around a third of the country's population coming under some form of lockdown by late July. A shortage of the AstraZeneca vaccine supply in the country, along with some degree of complacency after successes in previous outbreaks, as well as infections originating from foreign workers, were considered to have contributed to the outbreak. In response, government-mandated quarantine for foreign arrivals and close contacts to confirmed cases were extended to 21 days, and accompanying safety measures were also increased. The emergence of the Omicron variant brought about a rapid rise in infections in early 2022, although drastically fewer deaths were reported due to high vaccination rates in the country.Although the pandemic has heavily disrupted the country's economy, Vietnam's GDP growth rate has remained one of the highest in the Asia-Pacific Region, at 2.91% in 2020. Due to the more severe impact of the outbreak in 2021, which resulted in over 2 million cases, Vietnam's GDP grew at a slower rate in 2021 at 2.58%.Vaccinations commenced on 8 March 2021 with a total of 200,179,247 administered vaccination doses reported by 12 March 2022. The Vietnamese Ministry of Health has approved the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine, the Sputnik V vaccine, the Sinopharm BIBP vaccine, the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine, the Moderna vaccine, the Janssen vaccine, and the Abdala vaccine. Vietnam also approved Covaxin from Bharat Biotech. As of 13 March 2022, a total of 221,807,484 doses have arrived in Vietnam.

View More On Wikipedia.org