Patients are screened in Dakar, Senegal. Photo: John Wessels/AFP via Getty
South Korea and Hong Kong recorded no new local cases yesterday, and New Zealand and Australia also approached that milestone.
The big picture: Beyond those poster children of effective COVID-19 responses (Germany and Taiwan also qualify), there are a number of other success stories with lessons to offer the world.
Vietnam has now gone two weeks without any known community spread and has yet to record a death.
- That success has been largely overlooked, perhaps because Vietnam is unlike the other high-achievers as it's “a developing Communist nation, led by a coterie of middle-aged men,” per the Washington Post’s Adam Taylor.
- Researchers “have identified three key tactics used widely by the government: temperature screening and testing, targeted lockdowns and constant communication,” Taylor writes.
Senegal “now boasts the third-highest recovery rate in the world,” according to a weekly report from Albright Stonebridge Group.
- Zoom in: “The Dakar-based Institut Pasteur (IPD) has developed a rapid $1 COVID-19 test, and the country has repurposed facilities built for Ebola into COVID-19 testing centers, as well as spearheaded the production of 3D-printed ventilators,” the ASG reports notes.
Ghana is now lifting its lockdown, with President Nana Akufo-Addo saying the country’s test-and-trace program is proving highly effective
- South Africa, haunted by its slow response to the AIDS epidemic, imposed a strict lockdown and sent testing teams into townships to catch outbreaks before they grew. It quickly flattened the curve.
Central European countries like Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic have also seen far fewer cases and deaths than Western European countries.
- They had additional time, with outbreaks beginning weeks after Italy’s, but used it well, the FT notes.