Under USAID’s Improving Access, Curriculum and Teaching in Medical Education and Emerging Diseases (IMPACT MED) Alliance, 176 faculty, 8,782 medical students and residents, and 963 key health workers from 194 health facilities nationwide were trained and certified as “first responder-ready” for COVID-19 deployment, and are now actively engaged in fighting the pandemic. This week, 250 senior students and faculty from Hai Duong Medical Technology University were deployed to Bac Giang and Bac Ninh provinces, epicenters of Vietnam's fourth wave of COVID-19, to support contract tracing, COVID-19 sample collection, and other COVID-19 prevention and control measures. These students were also deployed and played a vital role in controlling the outbreak during Vietnam's third wave of COVID-19 in January and February of 2021. Recognizing that the health workforce is critical to controlling COVID-19, USAID/Vietnam invested in training senior medical students from April-September 2020 through the IMPACT MED project, implemented by the Partnership for Health Advancement in Vietnam.
USAID’s early investments in training senior medical students have paid dividends in the fight against COVID-19 as these students have been critically engaged in controlling the second, third, and now fourth outbreaks.
