In partnership with the global healthcare company Novartis, the USAID Improving Access, Curriculum and Teaching in Medical Education and Emerging Diseases (IMPACT-MED) Alliance has trained nearly 2500 final-year medical students at 10 Vietnamese medical schools on COVID-19 care and treatment. Since discovering new COVID-19 cases in the central city of Danang on July 25, Vietnam is addressing a surge of new cases around the country. This marks the end of a 99-day streak without any new local transmission cases. Following the Ministry of Health’s decision to mobilize health workers, including medical students, to participate in the COVID-19 response, the Danang Department of Health has enlisted 700 senior students who were trained through USAID IMPACT-MED at Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy and Danang University of Medical and Pharmacological Techniques. These frontline workers will work at Danang-area hospitals to help deliver care and treatment services to COVID-19 patients.

So What? USAID IMPACT-MED has again demonstrated the shared value vision of the Alliance’s public and private sector partners; having cultivated strong relationships with the private sector over the past five years, effective partnerships with companies like Novartis now come together quickly during public health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic.