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PANDEMIC PLANNING: Zero COVID worked for some countries – but high vaccine coverage is now key

Since the start of the pandemic, several countries have adopted a zero-COVID strategy, aiming to eradicate COVID within their borders. Faced with the highly transmissible delta variant, many are now abandoning it.

New Zealand is the latest country to abandon the zero-COVID approach, following hard on the heels of Vietnam and Australia.

Vietnam was once hailed as a zero-COVID success, but it has recently experienced a sharp rise in deaths. Despite a population of 97 million, Vietnam managed to keep cases below 3,000 until May 2021, when the delta variant started to spread internationally. By October, it had 800,000 cases, and COVID deaths had risen from 35 to 20,000.

China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are the remaining zero-COVID holdouts. How long they will continue with this strategy is anyone’s guess.

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