Question:Could you share with us the measures that Israel has been implementing to curbthe spread of the COVID-19 pandemic? Vietnam has recorded no new COVID-19 casessince April 17, with no deaths and three quarters of COVID-19 patientsnationwide have recovered. What do you think about Vietnam’s measures in thisfield?

Answer: First allow me to show my appreciation to the role of theVietnamese government and people performing in the combat (against) COVID-19.Actually I am very much impressed by achievements so far done by the governmentand by the country. And we can see that the results are speaking for themselves.The disease is blocked from entering significantly into Vietnam and thereforewe, my family and staff at Israeli Embassy feel very comfortable here inVietnam. This is actually one of the spots in the world which are among thesafest. I wish that the Vietnamese government and Vietnamese people that thissituation we will keep being the same in the near and future and later on.

In Israel we're not aslucky as Vietnam I would say and we have a bigger problem. We haveapproximately almost 14,000 cases of people who got infected and we have themortality of about 184 to this morning. By percent it’s not as difficult asother places in the world, however of course every case. The Israeli governmentis like the Vietnamese government, we acted very fast. We locked our gate, westopped the international flights relatively early and we are performing allkind of measures like social distancing, closing necessary businesses. It isworking to some extent because so far we still have the phenomena of thenumbers of still growing. I hope that this tendency will be reversed soon andwe'll see less and less cases and more and more cases of people who actuallyrecover.

We’re also workingvery hard. Our scientific sectors are trying to get Medical Solutions,vaccinations as well as medicines to the disease. So far not yet with muchsuccess but I think that like other countries, with partnership with otherstrong scientific sectors in other countries, I'm optimistic that we willprevail and we will find the solution to this disease.

Question:What is your assessment about the provision of information on the pandemic bythe Vietnamese government and health ministry for foreign representativeoffices in Vietnam?

Answer: We feel very much informed. We get access to the informationlike the rest of the Vietnamese people and we follow closely the news. We gotinformation sometimes to our houses by the changes of policies. We are guesthere in this country, respect policies implemented by the government and wefollow carefully the regulations and the requirements by the government. 

I think that theVietnamese government is fast to react to developing situations around thecountry and I think it is dependent not only on the government but also thecooperation by the citizens. I think citizens in this kind of time of hardshipare united and they understand the need to follow the instructions by thegovernment, the order to prevent escalation of the situation.

We Israelis live herein Vietnam, we follow, we comply with regulations and we behave accordingly.And therefore I think the situation is clear to us as we follow closely wereport back home because Israel follows closely the situation around the worldand they see the situation in Vietnam as an example of how to deal with thedisease.

Question:Could you speak about the cooperation between Vietnam and Israel in the processof treating, quarantining suspected and infection cases, and bringing Israelicitizens home?

Answer: I think that not only Vietnam and not only Israeli, the wholeworld are practically busy with trying to avoid, to prevent the disease fromspreading further. And the whole world are working together to find a solution.Israel and Vietnam are very friendly countries, we are in touch with eachother. 

I think there areseveral points that Israelis and Vietnamese are in touching base together onthis issue. For example of dealing with the citizens of each other.  So Israeli citizens here as you asked weresuccessfully expatriated home. All the travelers here in the beautiful Vietnam.And we managed with the help of the Vietnamese government, Vietnam Airlines andothers to send them all back home to their families. And currently we don'thave anyone in Vietnam who is not willing to be here. Some travellers just stayhere because they feel it is safer. We enjoy the cooperation of the governmentfor providing for them extension of Visa and other measures that will help themto feel comfortable here in the country.

Another aspect we aretrying to conduct with the Vietnam is the procurement of equipment. We try tobring Vietnam’s products that are relevant to the coronavirus combat. We wouldpurchase them, including masks and equipment that can be very relevant. It isvery much in need in Israel and I hope that we can bring a large significantbatch very soon.

And another thing thatwe are going to conduct this week, actually we're going to hand out a donationof rice, with one tonne of rice to people who are in need, to people whosuffered here from losing their providing of jobs. And this is something smallthat we can help both by feeling we should do something for this community andalso representing Israel Spirit which is the spirit of sharing the burden, ofgiving. I hope and I hope that we can help even a little bit.

Question:As ASEAN Chair in 2020, Vietnam has coordinated with countries to issue astatement on ASEAN’s response to the COVID-19. What do you think about the roleof Vietnam in regional and international cooperation in the COVID-19 fight?

Answer: This kind of combatis very clear that one country cannot prevail. It requires maximuminternational corporation, maximum regional cooperation. I think ASEAN is animportant player in this region. 10 countries are cooperating with othercountries to deal with the disease. And I think Vietnam is a responsibleplayer, doing its utmost to contribute to the general, to the internationaleffort both regionally and internationally. We are following the behavior forVietnam also on the international arena in this regard. We Israel try also toshare our experience, knowledge and I think that this crisis is one of theexamples that there is only a good result when everybody together joins forces.

Maybe never before wesaw such an in a crisis but I think 100% of countries are absolutely committedto fighting together. So this is maybe one of the positive points in this situation.And I hope that with the contribution of Vietnam, with the contribution of thestate of Israel and other members of International Community we will prevail coronavirusas soon as possible./.VNA