At the end of April voted one Bloomberg Review Singapore to the best country to be in during the corona pandemic, partly due to very little spread of infection within the country and good vaccine coverage.
Taiwan has also long kept the coronavirus in check using effective measures.
This week, the good trend has reversed drastically in both countries. Singapore was only able to report 246 new cases last week, while Taiwan reported as many as 1,200 infected last week, writes BBC.
The countries’ increase in infection coincides with the situation in other Asian countries. As Dagbladet has previously mentioned, Asia has experienced one contagion, and in the last two weeks has detected more cases of infection than America, Europe and Africa combined.
The background for the increase in infection in the countries is different.
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Infection in strip clubs
In Taiwan, Associate Professor Lin Hsien-ho at the National Taiwan University believes that carelessness and complacency with the country’s situation may have created the increase in infection.
– The doctors did not take it seriously, the hospitals were not ready and they did not do much infection detection. There was definitely a certain sense of complacency, he tells the BBC.
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The country must have felt that the virus would not penetrate Taiwan’s borders, says Lin.
Then Taiwan changed the quarantine rules from the usual 14 days, all the way down to three days.
After that, the country saw the virus spread from Chinese pilots and on into the country’s population and looked into strip clubs.
– You had people who sang, drank and came into frequent contact with each other indoors, says Dr. Li.
Epidemiologist Chen Chien-jen says that the fact that many who tested positive were not willing to declare that they had visited such strip clubs, made infection detection even more difficult.
– It reminds us that even when a very small proportion of the population breaks the rules, it will lead to “leaks”, said Dr. Chen.
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Infection via airports
In Singapore, large parts of the infection are linked to the main airport Changi and foreign travelers who come to the country.
According to the BBC, many of the infected were employees at the airport who had been in contact with people who had come from high-risk countries. The employees are then said to have spread the virus by eating at restaurants, which are also accessible to the general population, at and near the airport.
Several have warned against this loophole and that it would create problems. Now that the increase in infection is a fact, many of Singapore’s residents are annoyed.
– I understand why people feel frustrated because the majority of Singaporeans have followed the guidelines, says Professor Teo Yik Ying, at the NUS School of Public Health to the BBC and continues:
CHANGI: Travelers wander around Singapore’s largest airport Changi in March. Photo: AFP
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– But we are not like China, which can keep the borders completely closed. Our reputation as a country, our economy, is linked to our position as a trading hub.
He nevertheless believes that the situation of those countries should be seen as a warning to other countries.
– When I see that countries in Europe, or the United States, are starting to relax, I think they should be very careful and look around the world to see what is happening. What has happened in Taiwan and Singapore is a sign that we cannot be careless.
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