By KATIE GOSS ’23
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is taking a global toll, with now just a handful of countries around the world not reporting any confirmed cases. Originating in Wuhan, China in December 2019, it was not until early January that a case was first reported outside of China. By March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
As the number of cases continues to grow globally every day, some countries’ confirmed case numbers are worse than others. With some reaching hundreds of thousands in both confirmed cases and deaths, like the United States and Italy, other countries have managed to slow the spread of the virus. Some countries, like Australia and Singapore, are reporting fewer than 10,000 cases of the virus and under 100 deaths.
Australia started taking action to prevent the spread of the virus around late January. Starting then, any Australian citizens returning from China, a “high risk” area, were immediately quarantined for two weeks, and only allowed to return to their daily lives once they were medically cleared to do so. As soon as three people who returned from Wuhan tested positive for COVID-19, Australia warned citizens not to travel to Wuhan until further notice.
As February rolled around, Australia closed its borders to any non-citizens coming from China until further notice and evacuated any Australian citizens still in China to be quarantined and tested back home. By mid-March, Australia closed its borders to all international visitors, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared a “human biosecurity emergency,” granting him executive power to set curfews, enforce quarantines and close off cities and regions to the rest of the country. Morrison declared this emergency as soon as the country’s death toll hit six. Australia also created the National Cabinet — a type of national crisis cabinet similar to a war cabinet — in early March. The last time a cabinet of this nature had been created in Australia was during World War II.
Since emergency responses were initiated, Australia has imposed strict legal repercussions should residents break social distancing or quarantine orders. On Friday, April 3, the University of Sydney produced an article stating that COVID-19 cases in Australia are expected to peak in just a few weeks. The expected total number of cases will remain between 8,000-10,000 should the country continue its current course of action. Furthermore, the research stated that, as long as at least 90 percent of the country adheres to social distancing procedures, the pandemic should be controlled within the country by July.
“The best outcome is a short-term pain, long-term gain scenario,” Professor Mikhail Prokopenko, who led the study, said in the University of Sydney’s article. “Even a three-day delay in adopting strong social distancing measures (around 90 percent) would cost us a three-week lengthening of the suppression period.”
Australia continues to provide updated information every day on the number of cases and deaths, along with safety precautions and how COVID-19 is being handled on their government website. As of Thursday, April 9, the number of confirmed cases is just over 6,000, with a death toll of just over 50.
Singapore is another country that has had lower numbers of positive cases and deaths. Having dealt with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, the country had invested in more health care infrastructure and outbreak preparation after SARS was contained. Singapore also spent time building a task force that included multiple government agencies which would come together to work if another outbreak occurred. This prepared response also included around 1,000 public health preparedness clinics, which help train and prepare primary care physicians for outbreaks and additionally serve as extra clinics for those infected in an outbreak. The country was able to use these new resources in 2009 and 2016 during the H1N1 pandemic and the Zika outbreak, and has been using these systems more recently for the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to being prepared medically for another outbreak of sorts, the Singapore government announced that all testing and treatment for COVID-19 would be covered by federal healthcare funding. They are also compensating citizens for their loss of income in order to further reinforce their “stay-at-home” orders, and giving them five days of medical leave should they experience any respiratory symptoms. Even further, from April 5-12, the government is providing all households with reusable face masks free of charge.
The Ministry of Health and the Singapore Police Force have been working together to enforce that those infected, and those in contact with anyone infected, stay in quarantine or seek medical treatment should they test positive. Those who are coming back to Singapore from another country are being placed in a “hotel quarantine.” Meals are brought to them three times a day and they are routinely checked up on. Singapore has also been aggressive in using contact tracing, which is following an infected person’s footsteps and seeing who they have interacted with and where they have been. One way they have gone about this process is the government asking citizens for access to their phone records as well as monitoring their locations.
Associate Professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke Calvin Chen explained that the citizens in Singapore allow that breach in their privacy in order to help the state of public health in the country better as a whole. “In order to do that tracing successfully, citizens are more willing to have their cell phone data merged with medical records,” Chen said.
“We do know that authoritarian governments (as in Singapore) have a much greater ability to impose and enforce strict limitations on citizens' behaviors,” said Chair of Sociology and Anthropology and Mary E. Woolley Professor of Anthropology at Mount Holyoke Lynn Morgan. Ultimately, the response to the virus came down to the government’s reaction, and the decisions they made to keep their citizens safe. Chen explained that Singapore was open and honest with their citizens from the start, as they were close to the epicenter of the virus’s origin.
“Overall, it comes down to good communication from the leadership in a country,” said Chen. Citizen’s compliance with the countries’ orders about the coronavirus “don’t come from necessarily fear of the government, but more of the fear of what will happen in another pandemic,” said Chen.
Updates on COVID-19 for each country are given almost daily on their government websites. In addition, for a more global look at the virus each day, the WHO’s website continues to update their information regularly.