The following is a timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam.
Timeline Overview
+WaveTimeNo. of casesDescriptionSumDomesticDeath</td>The first cases discovered in Ho Chi Minh City were two people from Wuhan (China), the disease then spread in 13 other localities.</td>The epicenter was in Da Nang, the source of infection may have been from Hospital C in the city.</td>This outbreak started in Hai Duong from a person who was found positive after entering Japan, and the true source of the infection is unknown. The epicenter was in Hai Duong, this local outbreak accounting for nearly 80% of the total number of cases.</td>Numerous outbreaks were discovered in all localities. This surge occurred due to the more transmissible Delta variant and Omicron variant.Số liệu COVID-19 tại Việt NamVnExpressDelta variant threatens to overload Vietnam's healthcare system: experts VnExpressDaily COVID-19 update VnExpress
First cases
The first two confirmed cases in Vietnam, a Chinese man, born in 1954 and his son, were admitted to Cho Ray Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, on 22 January 2020. The son was believed to have contracted the virus from his father, who had earlier flown from Wuhan on 13 January, when they met in Nha Trang on 17 January. The first cluster also appeared in Son Loi Commune, Bình Xuyên District, Vĩnh Phúc after a few workers returned from a training trip in Wuhan and infected other people in close contact with them. The Vietnamese government immediately locked down Bình Xuyên District until 4 March 2020 to prevent the disease from spreading. This was the first large-scale lockdown outside China. Having known cases early is one of the main reasons why Vietnam was successful in fighting the virus. For the first 16 cases of the disease, the medical staff had to treat different types of patients, including infants, the elderly and people with underlying conditions. This was like "an exercises" for the Vietnamese medical system in order to prepare and study the new virus.Việc phân tuyến và phác đồ điều trị COVID- 19 của Việt Nam phù hợp, hiệu quả. Bạch Mai Hospital. 21 February 2020
March 2020–2021: sporadic outbreaks and strict measures When the pandemic spreads across the globe, the coronavirus cases in the country also surged, and on the evening of 6 March, the Hanoi Department of Health confirmed the first case in the capital, a 26-year-old woman who had travelled to Europe. This is the 17th case in Vietnam.Vietnam confirms 17th COVID-19 patient. VnExpress. 7 March 2020 On the afternoon of 20 March, the Ministry of Health announced 2 new COVID-19 patients, the 86th and 87th, who were two female nurses at Bạch Mai Hospital with no history of contact with any COVID-19 patients.Bước đầu xác định nguồn lây nhiễm chính ở BV Bạch Mai. Ministry of Health (Vietnam). 30 March 2020 In March and April 2020, the number of cases increased rapidly due to the large number of people coming from European countries and the appearance of clusters such as Bạch Mai Hospital, Ha Loi Commune in Hanoi and Buddha Bar in Ho Chi Minh City.
After 21 March 2020, Vietnam suspended entry for all foreigners from midnight of 22 March, and introduced concentrated isolation for 14 days in all cases of entry for Vietnamese citizens. From 1 April, Vietnam implemented a 15 days nationwide lockdown.HIỂU ĐÚNG về yêu cầu cách ly xã hội. Ministry of Health (Vietnam). 2 April 2020 On the same day, former prime minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc announced the nationwide outbreak of COVID-19.Công bố dịch COVID-19 toàn quốc. Ministry of Health (Vietnam). 1 April 2020 The drastic epidemic control measures had positive results and the country did not confirm any cases of local transmission from mid-April to the end of July.Quốc tế đánh giá Việt Nam phòng chống đại dịch COVID-19 hiệu quả. Ministry of Health (Vietnam). 4 April 2020 Vietnam began loosening restrictions in May, including resuming domestic travel across the country.
Da Nang outbreak The country entered second wave of infection when the Ministry of Health announced the 416th case in Da Nang, which was the first case with an unknown source of infection in 99 days. On 28 July, the Da Nang authorities immediately locked down the city for 15 days. Hundreds of cases across the country with epidemiological factors related to Da Nang were furthermore detected, and the first death was also recorded on 31 July. After two months, by using the same strategies that have been used in the first outbreak, Vietnam has successfully contained the disease for the second time and has resumed almost all economic activities, including international commercial flights. Sporadic community infections continue during November and December, causing public scare and heightened measures.
Hai Duong outbreak The third wave of infection began on 28 January 2021, when Vietnam recorded an additional 84 community transmission cases within a single day in Hải Dương and Quảng Ninh provinces. Most of these are related to a single Hải Dương migrant worker, who was diagnosed with the UK coronavirus variant by Japanese authorities after arriving in Osaka on 17 January. Initially, the government only quarantine the areas directly related to the infected people to limit the economic impact. But after half a month the number of cases still showed no signs of stopping, so on 15 February, entire province of Hải Dương was locked down for 15 days while Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City stopped all entertainment activities. This is one of the most serious outbreak due to slow tracing process, mismanagement in quarantine facilities and people starting to ignore lockdown rules after long period of restrictions. On 7 March 2021, the situation in northern provinces appears to have been largely brought under control when number of new cases fell to single digits. Along with that, Vietnam started its mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign on the next day.
From 3 September 2020 to 15 May 2021, the country recorded no new COVID-19 related deaths.
May 2021–present: Severe outbreak and 'endemic' stage From the end of April 2021, Vietnam experienced "a fast-spreading outbreak" of more than 350,000 cases. Clusters have been found in industrial parks in Bac Giang province and then in at least ten major hospitals in the country. As the epidemic has spread to many provinces in Vietnam, many outbreaks are occurring in many localities at the same time, making it "nearly impossible" to trace and cut the chain of infection. According to WHO, to prepare for the worsening situation, the country has built more than 30 field hospitals with a scale of 1,500 ICU beds and 30,000 non-ICU beds. When total cases reached a few thousands per day, the Central government decided to lock down the entire Southern Region with 35 million people, along with the capital, Hanoi, to contain the spread. On 26 July 2021, for the first time in the country's disease prevention history, Ho Chi Minh City imposed a daily night curfew beginning at 6:00 pm. As a result, no one is permitted to leave the city, and only emergency services are permitted to operate. On 28 July, the National Assembly gave the central government in Hanoi mandate to implement emergency measures for curbing the pandemic locally. On 20 August, Nguyễn Thành Phong was dismissed by the Politburo as chairman of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City. The government also mobilized 10,000 troops to the city to enforce the lockdown and deliver food supplies. One of the main reasons for this outbreak is a four-day holiday for Reunification Day and International Workers' Day, which saw many vacation destinations packed with travelers. In addition, gene sequencing results show that the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant is the dominant variant in this wave, especially among cases in central and southern localities of Vietnam.
On 29 August, Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính stated that Vietnam might have to live with the virus and could not rely on indefinite closures and quarantines. This marked a major change in the country's approach to COVID-19, forcing Vietnam to accelerate its vaccination campaign to control the pandemic. The number of new cases began to fall to several thousand per day in mid-September, and restrictions were eased. Vietnam recorded its first case of the Omicron variant in December, leading to a significant new wave of infections going into the first months of 2022, with the highest 7-day average of 206,402 cases recorded on 13 March. However, due to the country's widespread vaccination coverage, deaths remained low in proportion to the number of confirmed cases.
In March 2022, Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính declared COVID-19 to be "endemic" and considered ending daily reporting of new cases. An article in Bloomberg noted that Vietnam has a high level of vaccination and has seen a dramatic drop in COVID-19 related deaths. However, in August, the Ministry of Health issued a recommendation to not declare COVID-19 endemic, and to instead shift the country's response from "prevention" to "stable management".
First wave January 2020 On 14 January, two Chinese tourists with fever symptoms from Wuhan were quarantined by the authorities and placed under observation after they landed at Da Nang International Airport. Hanoi dispatched a medical team to the coastal city and called an emergency meeting the next day on prevention efforts.
On 23 January, Vietnam confirmed the first two cases of COVID-19. Vietnam Ministry of Health issued two hotline numbers for information on the coronavirus disease, and advised citizens to contact the nearest healthcare center if they had its symptoms. On 24 January, acting minister of health Vũ Đức Đam ordered the activation of the Emergency Epidemic Prevention Centre. Vietnamese doctors documented and reported the two cases to medical journal The New England Journal of Medicine, at that time this was the first concrete evidence to the scientific community about human-to-human transmission of the disease outside China. On 29 January, the 2nd COVID-19 patient had fully recovered and was discharged. His father, who was the 1st COVID-19 patient in Vietnam, was discharged on 12 February.
On 29 January, the Ministry of Health established 40 mobile emergency response teams, on stand-by to assist affected locations, for quarantining, disinfecting, and transporting patients or suspected patients. A week after the first two cases, three positive cases were confirmed by the Ministry of Health, involving Vietnamese nationals who had returned from Wuhan. Case No. 3 (25-yr-old female) was quarantined and cured in Thanh Hóa Province, while the other two cases (#4: 29-yr-old male; #5: 23-yr-old female) were hospitalised in Hanoi. Case No. 5 was discharged on 3 February, fully recovered and after testing negative for the virus.
February 2020
On 1 February, a 25-year-old woman (#6) was declared coronavirus-positive in Khánh Hòa Province. She has worked as a receptionist and had direct contact with the Chinese father and son (cases #1–2). This case was discharged from the hospital on 4 February. Noticeably, this case was the first domestic transmission in Vietnam, leading to an epidemic declaration signed by the Vietnamese Prime Minister and calls for border tightening, aviation permits revoked, and visa restriction.
On 2 February, a Vietnamese American (#7) got infected with coronavirus, due to two-hour layover in Wuhan airport during his trip from the US.
After 3 February, everyone entering from China to Vietnam must comply with the 14-day epidemiological check-up and health-monitoring procedure to ensure that the COVID-19 epidemic does not getting worse.
On 3–4 February, Vietnam announced their eighth and ninth case: a 29-year-old female (#8) and a 30-year-old male (#9). They belonged to the same training team with the previous confirmed cases of three (cases #3-through-5).