On. And they like them yeah ok today on the stool were going to look at how the country successfully trickled to climb the virus and the constant welcome to the stream templi. My name is custom else and im the assistant to the director of health so im a former journalist and ive been helping my director and the chief epidemiologist focus their message to the people. So its been a its been a quite a right here and i think i cant wait to talk to you all about it but look were looking forward to hearing about it dolly in looking to the struggling to the south tell our global audience. Thank you for having me my name is. Postdoctoral research or since i got im looking at vietnamese integration and Business Response during cohen 90 right to have you on the stage and welcome michael to the strain tell everybody. Thanks to me my hands my hope that im a professor of public house at a medical school and where im to and thats used no time no. Visor group for our ministry of Health Problem with the arms loss to the crew of those 19 welcome Michael Moore from him in just a little bit so how does some countries in 1000 kovac 98 if you have questions for x. That trolley know what to see if youre on each you jump into the chat and you can be part of the conversation and that conversation starts in easy. Going into other level for one of the most stringent variations of lockdown seen across the world for a full 4 weeks was difficult initially for people to adapt to and certainly very hard on businesses and the wider economy but the structure that this offered tied to direct actions that people were expected to take lead to a clarity that was very helpful very constraining and led to an increased sense of safety as it became clear as we approach 2 weeks into that long that it was having a big effect upon case numbers. Michael what do you still covert status of. Weve heard the sirens we havent had a case of local transmission for over 6 weeks so thats obviously not to be and were having. To take our arrival here to orange so we still getting a steady stream using it is coming back to the country and developing new or less being diagnosed they dont stress and now international because theyre not released from quarantine up to their virus was the visual plan total elimination of coverage 19. Know our restaurant is in what we were following standard pandemic influenza plan which if you like is a kind of mr gresham approach so thats because you cant really stop through in the borders and you try to fit in a queue of basically and just have a courses that by match when a standstill a transmission new zealand we look to the success of the Asian Countries that contain this and fixed and so we changed the rich and very softly to a containment which is core of who you know lumination approach and the god of rep as an enemy to stop transmission. Michael one menendez and has some very colorful language a new chief he says that tonight the countries are talking about today said including new zealand you have a real leaders in these countries unlike the m words in brazil and the United States he doesnt have make great things to say that he talks about the leadership youre talking to me about science why im saying leadership is. You know were i think the country that has succeeded have had this combination of good science or good leadership and inventive very decisive and i look at the other countries that also really in many cases across asia but also iceland in a number of other countries that have acted very decisively very proactively to deal with aspirants and they are the ones that has succeeded and of course we have a very in the Senate Leader of this annuity and who i think its really taking the whole country with her and so theres been a sort of since a collective action in new zealand and that really got us through this. Period we come out of it very cautiously to a virus free country that was the guard and we achieved their. What was not doubt like feeling michel because you know dons a thing happening all around the world but new zealand to then knock down a credibility seriously what could you do you could you know. Basically it was a bit like a home were you see an issue you had to go out for situ surprisal miracle to hear what you were essentially and thats like in the whole country into her car today and its very effective basically stops the transmission or hes viruses influenza there as well are so it has it has a very good approach if you want to get rid of a virus that thats. Ok which im going to with this a little bit because everyone can see it this is raw mean shit the im running says dont get too comfortable yet the worst may be yet to come thats quite ominous is there any sense if he said were totally free right now but is there a buck ahead. Thats about and we have appeared in most countries changed elimination or close to it weve had problems. And i think theyre manageable i mean were gearing up for or to trace and do if you notice in even though were not finding the virus in new zealand and when you look across really across to china singapore south korea straight they were had. The honor. Of serving over nation is you get your mortality wrecked really and most of your business can get that and. So i think its a great. But you have to say is i mean people met in states. I want to go back to some joe how he rests the clinical psychologist here right at the very much more of a segment talking about new zealand need to think there would be a problem of being kind of a free star identifies one thing is he enjoys having this while much of the rest of the world is anxious about catching the virus itself or protecting their loved ones from catching it its not so much the presence of cover 19 that presents new zealand with its greatest challenge but the absence of it how do we find our place in this new world when actually we are one of the outliers who have been successful at eliminating covered 19 perhaps the anxiety that goes along with the uncertainty of what the world is going to look like and our place in it and the economic pressures that may follow these presents the biggest challenge to new zealand as we go through the next few months and perhaps years when we are so far away not only geographically but also in terms of the experience that much of the rest of the world is going through right now michael what a problem to have you could be lonely out there in new zealand in your coverage for you going to do you. Where are we hoping to connect quite soon with the other countries that are also a mess of this virus and pretty soon we much of the eastern hemisphere Mainland China and taiwan really succeeded incredibly where are the nam potentially are. Theres quite a few Pacific Islands basically left of the group rich theyve never had the virus and we were stuck couldnt see him shortly so i dont think we have a strong sense of loneliness or. Like a vacant thank you so much for joining us we really appreciate your time here on the string took about an easy end and its covert 19 successful strategy we go now to viet nam population 1000000000 number of deaths from covert 19 registered deaths. I think it was a great example of the notion that you dont need to be rich country to be pandemic as. Well a pair and focused a week after the 1st case was confirmed in late january the country clearing Public Health emergency home of the current virus epidemic the same time it was already in conversation with experts and then factors to develop its own testing can i think is of interest to you to know that the country didnt matter really excel in dealing with coming 18. If experiences dealing with sars in 2003 and nabby and influenza after that which allows it to invest in the public house in some fashion and their reaction. Is so good to have you here it seems as if the experience that field had with Infectious Disease is put in a good plates for tackling covert 19 whats your take. Thing of things what if the question for me and thank you again for having me so early of in the hands of rather successful response to cope you know which has been recognized by the american c. D. C. Has been a combination of top down policy action and perhaps more importantly bottom up efforts by an arab people and celeste that in turn so top down policy action was very swift aggressive and communicative we shut all schools back in january before everyone else we started to quarantine inbound travelers in factory in mount traffic all together in my. Country lockdown from late march to a broke military wasnt all the population received constant communication from the governments of virus and precautionary measures to take and i would like to emphasize that we have been very strict in isolating confirmed cases if you were tested positive you are set up well sensibly and anyone you came into contact with would also get tested and this in and say around where to live. Nobody came and nobody tomorrow everyone will be provided. I mean which you can really strip not like if you feel like it if you want to quarantine were you taken away and then locked up until you were better. Not violently taken away but so do we take it away we yes they are taken away and we dont have given a. Body to me youve youve got to be 19 you need to be somewhere where youre not infecting other people that that was the situation. Yes that was the idea behind it not to questions on huge inflation please granger men benjamin says i want to know the status of covert 19 in vietnam what is the status of covert 1000 and where where are you right now. So far so far we have 353 of 355 cases up to this day and 0 there. And then look i mean one thing one thing that i that i want to you know even more emphasize the fact that we are very strict the bottom up efforts by the ordinary citizen. You know we played against ira by you did with your origami to win in bringing 7 because 7 wanted to ask about that 7 vi guest says and hes a new chief high 7 how do the people in these countries how do people in fit man especially am responding to the lockdown measures and how does the government ensure social justice poppen saying that food and shelter to those people who had no access and we are asking about what youre about to say how to react to these these very strict lock downs. Oh good question so the long story short is that the we voluntarily contributed to the fight we stayed inside and we wore masks when going out this s. S. Provided Hand Sanitizer accustom us to disdain i might act and some businesses even checked customers temperature before as in a man and to top it out you know the issue of whether we would show any resistance where they are or what we thought about human rights so we the vietnamese people craned their virus as a life and death or rather life or death matter we did not have this strange idio logical debate and protest against Wearing Masks against staying at home and not going to our show you know like in some places in the us and i dont know i think we need to be straightforward though with people because this is perhaps the political situation in vietnam actually helped in terms of locking down 19 or eliminating it because it is a communist party system so if you do not do what the party says you will be in trouble for instance if you didnt a deal to some of the regulations you could be put in prison but what youre saying is that this political system really helped fight havoc 90. It is what so what the point trying to make is that yes we have that swift as a response and well obviously that came from our political system you know we have it one party system but thats not the point im trying to make the point im trying to make is that the people themselves thought of this as an important issue you know we framed we we have never framed it as a personal liberty thing i mean look we are we are very poor and we have been invaded time and time again for thousands of years so then you got this sense of collective good. It in your collective unconsciousness so youre trying to a man at least at a family level so you try to protect the people you love so let me answer to your kids and i say some ok weve got one minute left at the stories to tell the story is a crock a true its a want to share some pictures of beautiful pictures you shared with me so it is tell me whats happening in this picture. And so that was one of the crass routes in a way to us and thats making my point so he is a famous specter inside and he came up with the idea of you know making bret from fruits in order to help farmers who could not export their produce during demick and not know what its all in so one must reach. This picture showing you know that a michigan is coming back from a pro going into warranty and you can see that the military you know people in blue. Clothing the military was mobilized to help with the fight. This is a so remarkable story thats coming from vietnam i really appreciate you sharing your insight and how you were involved in putting that strategy together i think every country however well theyve done with 90 has some anxiety earlier we spoke to a legal sangley is interesting business and hes a little bit anxious lets have a listen to zanny from vienna. So far. Nearly 80 days after last is. Weve got any new carries our incoming of the. Many we know music people decide to leave their match at home but Upcoming International music i. Seem to do my dreams twice. Tran is a research hes been very involved in advising the vietnamese government was a covert 1000 strategy no body has died according to official records from covert 19 if it definitely qualifies as a Success Story thank you so much for being on the string to totally appreciate it. Thank you. So we move on to iceland the population is just over 300000 and theyve had a sufficiently recognise deaths tenure from covert 90. What i said and has done well in response to the current 1000. 00 pandemic history spawned quickly and to get everybody tested and Institute Social distancing guidelines is an Immediate Impact on it reducing the rate of infection and flattening occur however its been very challenging to get everybody to a by these guidelines as its summer time and people want to go out and meet one another. With the summer to come july 1st saw us opening the country to a certain select nonchanging countries and the weeks and months to come will show whether or not we need to adjust our plan of action or not set out and that is how you got to. And that is what you are while but the question is how did you get when did still how the 1900 strategy starts for us and. Started. Soon after we saw. The reports coming out from one province. Or problem sorry we were definitely reminded of our experience with regards to source and marsh mercy. So we initiated our influence up and demick guidelines and brought the country to alert rather quickly we started testing early and were fortunate enough that to catch these 1st few cases that cropped up. And that how. You even know in ice in the 1st person who came into the country with coke 19 thats how could you. Yes still we are finding out now that there were all the routes of transmission we had cases when we were looking at northern italy and the region that we know now that during that time cases came to the country from the u. K. Probably the the u. S. We know that now because we have sequenced the genome of the virus that these people had so we know that the virus was coming to the country from multiple directions but still these were the 1st few cases so weak he caught a large portion of them and that definitely helped us in the long run. I want to see his agents when he who came out of the time and help with covered 19 and i think hes of a well known figure he set the photograph of me tell everybody who is in this picture. So this is save the limits on the g. S. T. Former director of health in iceland t. S. A. Infectious disease doctor a retired what is now a professor at the University Hospital. And this great gentleman. Came out to help when we had our search in cases. This was during the time where the situation was quite dire we were looking at an exponential curve in cases so it was an all hands on deck situation we could all write a request for retired Health Care Professionals to come out and help us help at the University Hospital was one of them and i find this photo quite quite. Quite fantastic because you can see it in his face that this is a serious situation and it most certainly was yeah i mean if we could sum up how i sensed be the current virus it was our initial question how to tell people the crying of ice how does it come to be revived probably tasting and also testing with the public to private funds as well yes. Definitely. Of course we were approached by a. A genetic Science Company in iceland called the quote they they saw the problem that we were dealing with the main problem was that we didnt really know how likely the virus has spread in the community when we started finding the positive cases we didnt know where we were in the everything the logical curves and we needed to know that. So we could focus our measures so difficult came in and they will in more than 2 to screen asymptomatic ranging intimate us into mitchell sweat not been exposed to the virus missiles they initiate that Screening Program it was coordinated by the chief 15 yalit used and director of health and they screened a large portion of the population in iceland we found out that the virus was certainly present in the community but it was not spreading rapidly between people so we knew at that time where we were exactly in the outbreak and based on that information we could improve our modeling and we could also focus our message more more. More activity. In every country that weve heard about so far hes even and. Now i stand as very unusual circumstances which made them find to be out to be coronavirus if you could sum up what it was the ice and how does that put me in a good position to kind of have this what would you say. Well you just have to look at the geography we are a small island nation our population is much in us there are short communication. We have highly educated Health Care Professionals we have. Contested people who are in charge so all these aspects come together. And not least we have really only one major point of entry to the country so it was easier for us then than probably any other country to to find the early cases of covert 19 and that help and also the community here in iceland thats a said youre an island na