For almost six months, Vietnameseofficials every dayannounced a fairly astonishingstatistic for a nationof 96 million: no Covid-19deaths. But that changed on July31, with 10 deaths being reportedsince.After no reports of communitytransmission cases sincApril 16,an outbreak in the coastal city ofDanang turned deadly in late July.The virus swept through threehospitals and infected older peoplewith serious health issues, leadinghealth officials to warn of moredeaths.Vietnam’s virus resurgenceunderscores the difficulties governmentsface not only in battlingwaves of the stealthy pathogen butdoing so while trying to preserveeconomic growth. After officialslifted strict social-distancing lockdownslast spring, people returnedto activities such as crowding ontoDanang’s beaches, promptingPrime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucto scold the country for letting itsguard down.It’s unclear where the latestoutbreak originated, though itquickly spread to 12 provinces andcities and infected 333 people. Thevirus may have lurked in Vietnamundetected, spread through a quarantineglitch or an illegal migrant,or jumped to a human from ananimal, said Rogier van Doorn, aclinical microbiologist and directorof the Oxford University ClinicalResearch Unit in Hanoi.
