Hanoi (VNA) ൲– The US’s newswire vox.comon April 23 published an article highlighting Vietnam’s effective measuresagainst the COVID-19 pandemic, affirming that early and drastic actions such asborder shutdown have helped Vietnam keep virus variants at bay while growingits economy.

As the pandemic took hold last year, travel restrictions quicklyproliferated in many countries. According to one review, never in recorded history has globaltravel been curbed in “such an extreme manner”: a reduction of approximately 65 percent inthe first half of 2020. More than a year later, as countries experiment with vaccine passports, travel bubbles,and a new round of measures, a maze of ever-changing restrictions remainsfirmly in place. But few countries have gone as far as Vietnam, with a grossdomestic product per capita of 2,700 USD. Last year, its growth hit 2.91percent, defying economists’ predictions and beating China to become the topperformer in Asia. The author quoted researcherKelley Lee from Simon Fraser University as saying that under the leadership ofthe Communist Party of Vietnam, the Vietnamese Government took quicker and morecomprehensive approach to the pandemic than other countries. Vietnam has a "very scientific approach", said US economistSarah Bales who has lived and worked in Vietnam since 1992. Watching the pandemic unfold in the US and Europe, Bales wasamong several Vietnam-based Westerners who told Vox they believe the privacyand personal liberty costs during the pandemic were worth the benefits ofliving a relatively free life./.