Jakarta –
When countries in ASEAN experience a spike in COVID-19 cases, Brunei Darussalam is the country with the least number of cases.
There are hardly any local infections in the country. The last time, local transmission occurred on May 6, 2020. Meanwhile, if a new case occurs, it is an imported case.
As was the case last weekend, two new cases occurred and were reported to have come from Indonesian citizens who came to Brunei on 27 June. Launching The Star from CNBC, the Brunei government has carried out investigations as well as contact tracing. The result is that there is no close contact for the two new cases.
Brunei Darussalam recorded the best record in the world in handling the pandemic. For at least 430 days with no local cases of COVID-19 infection occurring. To date, out of 282 total cases, around 256 people have recovered from the COVID-19 infection and only three people have died from this outbreak.
A Look Back at Brunei at the Beginning of the Pandemic
A researcher named Nadia Azierah Hamdan and William Case from the University of Nottingham Malaysia presented their analysis. In the article entitled “Behind Brunei’s Covid-19 Success Story” they mention the strategy of the country of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah in fighting the pandemic. It’s not just starting now.
Since early 2020, steps have been taken when the first corona spread globally from the epicenter at that time, Wuhan, Hubei, China. Precisely in January 2020, when the first corona outbreak in the world, Brunei took firm steps to ban travelers from Hubei from entering the country.
Then, in February, local officials screened arrivals from all countries by conducting temperature checks at entry points. Until finally the COVID-19 case in Brunei was detected on March 9 and began to spread to reach 100 cases within 15 days.
This was triggered by the presence of a taklim congregation who visited Malaysia. After that, Brunei immediately took decisive action by following the rules of the World Health Organization (WHO), practicing social distancing and self-isolation for residents infected with the COVID-19 virus, including temporarily closing places of worship to reduce the rate of transmission.
Government Brunei Responding quickly drew up a de-escalation plan, reinforced by a special budget allocation of 15 million Brunei dollars or around Rp. 160 billion to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak.
On the other hand, the government’s communication with the public has also been facilitated, authorities have maximized news coverage on social media and television, which is supported by a 24-hour hotline service for inquiries about COVID-19.
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