Lessons From Singapore, Hong Kong And South Korea's Response To Coronavirus

Due to its proximity to China, experts forcasted that Taiwan would experience a high number of coronavirus cases, but aggressive intervention strategies have kept the overall caseload much lower than expected. New regulations, especially focused on people traveling through the airport – such as enrolling travelers in a national coronavirus database, taking their temperature in the airport, and mandating a two-week quarantine – granted the government the capability of being able to track the spread of potential incoming cases.

Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan all implemented similar comprehensive public health emergency plans that successfully reduced the spread of coronavirus in each region. Although each country used tactics such as travel restrictions, widespread testing, transparent communication, and quarantine protocols, Taiwan and South Korea are emerging as models for other countries due to the structure of democracy.

When Covid-19 cases began to be reported in Washington state, the state government – at the suggestion of local health officials – enacted some of the most stringent restrictions in the nation. Although these actions did not come without trade-offs, in Seattle, the strategy has resulted in "the lowest death rate of the 20 largest metropolitan regions in the country."

Italy, once a major hotspot for Covid-19 cases, has seen a significant decrease in the spread of the coronavirus after implementing strict government regulations including mandatory travel restrictions and isolation protocols. The success of the measures has been evident as the country begins to reopen – lifting restrictions in two-week increments to account for the "virus’s incubation period" – with no sign of the virus still spreading and hospitals remaining largely empty of critical cases.

South Korea's national government took quick action and implemented sweeping policy changes that have helped the country better control the spread of Covid-19. Contact tracing and democratizing the creation of testing supplies were two key aspects, but a major influencer was how quickly the country set these actions into motion by centralizing their approach.

Contact tracing has helped identify hundreds potential cases of Covid-19 in Teton County, Wyoming. Conducted by the county's health department, the process works much like it does for other communicable diseases, such as measles. According to the data collected from the efforts, 60% of those who have been contacted as being in contact with the coronavirus have tested positive for the virus themselves.

Vietnam is home to 95 million people, yet the country has reported less than 450 cases of coronavirus and not a single death thanks to quick implementation of lessons the country learned from the 2003 SARS pandemic. Although not all went smoothly in the country's response and critics have called some measures "excessive," the overall use of contact tracing, quarantine, and both business and movement restrictions have seemingly successfully contained the spread of the virus.

Rwanda, a country with the same population of Ohio, has emerged as an example of how to slow the spread of coronavirus, with only 1,500 cases reported so far. Besides initiating a lockdown, implementing free testing, and recruiting community health care workers, police, and college students to be contact tracers, officials also used "the same structure, same people, same infrastructure and laboratory diagnostics" that had been working to contain the spread of HIV.

Taiwan was expected to be inundated with COVID-19 cases, but that never happened at least in part due to the swift and aggressive actions enacted by the government. Integral to the approach was enhanced transparency from the government, which included text messages to those who were quarantined, as well as using lessons learned from the SARS outbreak.

Finland, Norway, and Denmark are three countries that have largely been able to contain the spread of COVID-19 and keep average daily deaths low, by implementing some of the "most relaxed combinations of restrictions." Although the virus has not been entirely eradicated, the success so far has been tied to a high rate of public compliance, preventative measures, and clear communication.