ABSTRACT
Singapore, an island country with 5.6 million population and a large volume of tourists from mainland China, was one of the first countries to report imported COVID-19 cases and had the highest number of cases outside mainland China for a time in February 2020. The government responded with a series of broadscale public health measures and managed to contain this first wave of infection. Notwithstanding that, an evolving pandemic situation in other countries eventually triggered a second, and much larger, wave of infection. This case study narrates the developments, influencing factors, and outcomes related to events starting from Singapore’s first response to COVID-19 and up to the point of its entry into Circuit Breaker. It serves as a reference for the understanding and analysis of developments in an evolving pandemic and a nation’s response from a systems level perspective.
The COVID-19 pandemic first broke out in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, where a cluster of pneumonia cases was reported and the novel coronavirus later identified. Since then, the virus has spread rapidly across the world, registering a total of 85000 reported cases across 53 countries/territories by 29 February 2020, and more than 10 million cases across over 200 countries/ territories by 30 June 2020.1 Singapore is more than 2,500 kilometres from the southwest of mainland China (where Wuhan is situated), but received a large number of Chinese visitors with more than 400 flights between Singapore and mainland China per week.
With the emergence of COVID-19 cases in Wuhan a few weeks before the Chinese New Year, during which large numbers of Chinese were expected to travel, Singapore instituted a series of broadscale public health measures to contain importation and spread of the virus.
Singapore was one of the first countries to report imported cases and had the highest number of cases outside mainland China for a time from 5 February 2020. However, the rise in cases plateaued towards the end of February.
This case study traces the developments in the early weeks of COVID-19 spread in Singapore, the government’s response, and containment of this first wave. It also describes the events and incremental measures taken in the lead-up to a second, and much larger, wave of infections that followed.
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