Singapore has been praised for its initial handling of the COVID-19 epidemic and keeping the outbreak under control, but, later in April, the number of people with the disease has jumped to the highest in Southeast Asia, which also brought attention to the city state’s mistreatment of its foreign workers.
The COVID-19 epidemic has been sweeping through the world posing unprecedented challenges to all, but—given its inherent qualities of a small population, economic openness and being an international hub—Singapore was even more vulnerable to such a pandemic. The small city state managed to keep the outbreak under control and has been praised for its initial handling of the epidemic, but later—as a result of a second wave of infections in April—the number of people with the disease has jumped to the highest in Southeast Asia, which also brought attention to the city state’s mistreatment of its foreign workers.
Singapore was among the few countries where the novel coronavirus has first been detected outside of China with the first confirmed case of COVID-19 being reported on 23 January. The Singaporean government acted quickly and contrary to the WHO’s advice: only six days later, the city state placed travel restrictions on visitors arriving from China or having Chinese passports issued in Hebei province, the epicentre of infections at the time, which were later extended to all passengers who visited mainland China in the previous two weeks. In light of the close economic relations between the two countries and the considerably high proportion of Chinese travellers’ contribution to Singaporean tourism and hospitality, these strict measures were to come at a high cost in addition to not being welcomed by Beijing.
Following an uptick in cases connected to international travellers in mid-March, travel restrictions were further tightened—similarly to other countries worldwide—barring all foreign visitors to enter the country and ordering Singaporean returnees—with a strict punishment if breached—to stay in quarantine and share their phones’ locations data with authorities.
Besides travel bans, strictly enforcing quarantine protocols, and social distancing, the Singaporean government also utilised a range of contact-tracing and containment measures, meticulous testing, and treatment for free, and it provided sector-specific advisories and free face masks for all citizens in need. It also helped to contain the situation that Singapore had its controversial “anti-fake news law” in force, by which a person found guilty can be heavily fined or face up to ten years in prison. Some cases have already been filed under the law on the epidemic, but many people were simply practicing self-censorship due to fear.