Singapore has worked a number of calibrated responses that can be divided into three broad buckets, said Associate Professor Jeremy Lim, Co-Director of the Leadership Institute for Global Health Transformation (LIGHT).
“Firstly, we sought very hard to reduce the number of cases that are imported from overseas.
Secondly, there was a very strenuous effort to identify local cases quickly and to minimise community spread.
And thirdly, social distancing measures were also put in place to mitigate the impact of any community spread,” he said.
He was speaking on The World, an international news segment by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, about Singapore’s quick and thorough response to the pandemic.
Up to date, there have been no reported deaths due to COVID-19 in Singapore. Assoc Prof Lim attributed this to a combination of factors (such as our healthcare system, early aggressive measures and public education on how to mitigate risks), as well as “a healthy dose of just plain old luck”.
But he noted that Singapore’s rates of admission to intensive care units (ICUs) are not different from other countries, meaning the severity of cases here is also not different from elsewhere.
On whether our policies can be applied and be effective in areas with much larger populations, such as US and European countries, he said:
“Every country is unique. It’s got its own geography, its own political and health infrastructure, but some lessons would be fairly universal.
What the Singapore experience signals is that speed, effectiveness of implementation, trusted government (trust between government and the people, between government and business) and the ability to make dynamic changes in real time as the situation develops — these are some of the critical ingredients that have helped Singapore so far.”
Media coverage:
- The World, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 16 March 2020 (interview at 18:55–25:35; available until 23 March)