How does Singapore deal with covid

Who would have thought that the end of 2019 was marked by the start of the COVID-19 outbreak that spread from Wuhan, China to several other countries. The disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has caused at least 80,000 cases globally and claimed more than 2,700 lives. Each country has its own preparations to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak, including Singapore.

In fact, Singapore is one of the countries that is quite prepared to face the COVID-19 outbreak. So, what do they do?

Singapore's preparedness in dealing with COVID-19

According to a report from WHO (24/2), the number of COVID-19 cases in Singapore has reached 90. Among the dozens of cases, 53 patients were declared cured. The good news is that the country known as the Asian tiger has not yet died from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Not a few people wonder what makes Singapore have a relatively small number of victims compared to Italy, Japan and South Korea.

COVID-19 Outbreak updates Country: IndonesiaData

1,024,298

Confirmed

831,330

Recovered

28,855

DeathDistribution Map

This is because not a few Singaporeans often travel to the epicenter of the outbreak, Wuhan and Hubei province, China. However, the preparedness of the Singapore government in dealing with COVID-19 has actually helped reduce this number.

Indonesian citizens when evacuated from China

Earlier in the year, Singapore's Ministry of Health appealed to doctors to identify patients with pneumonia symptoms and a history of travel from Wuhan. Subsequently, the government began screening tourists and people who had just come from Wuhan.

The health workers' preparedness status began to improve when they discovered the first cases were tourists from Wuhan. The government has started to carry out the identification, diagnosis and quarantine quite deftly regarding the first patient.

In fact, the government has also imposed entry restrictions on people who have recently traveled from Hubei to deal with COVID-19. From the screening of tourists entering Singapore, around 700 people are undergoing a quarantine period.

Singapore's preparation for COVID-19 is a lesson from its experience with SARS. The Singapore government is aware that all cases associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome need to be isolated and obtain two consecutive respiratory samples for RT-PCR until they become negative.

That way, health workers know with certainty whether a patient with suspected COVID-19 has actually been infected by a disease similar to SARS or not.

Valuable lessons from SARS when dealing with COVID-19

As previously mentioned, the Singapore government's preparation in dealing with COVID-19 is considered good enough because it learned from the SARS outbreak.

Since their experience with SARS in 2003, Singapore had a fairly high number of cases, namely 238 people were infected, including health workers and 33 patients died.

From this experience, Singapore has tried to strengthen its capabilities so that it can prepare itself well when new infectious diseases emerge. This preparation includes several things, such as:

• construction of special facilities for infectious diseases and health laboratories
• increase the number of beds in negative pressure isolation rooms throughout the hospital
• provide personal protective equipment (PPE) and masks
• establish a platform for inter-ministerial and cross-agency coordination
• develop the ability to track patient contacts quickly and precisely
• provide professional training for health workers
• set up more laboratories

Singapore's preparations for COVID-19 have garnered a lot of praise, including the WHO. Reporting from the WHO's official Twitter account, director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was impressed by the efforts being made to find cases to stop transmission.

It is not surprising that the authorities and the cooperation of the public in Singapore can reduce the risk of transmission from COVID-19.

The issue of COVID-19 that still needs to be resolved

The preparations made by Singapore in dealing with COVID-19 certainly came from a quite bitter experience when the SARS outbreak attacked this country.

However, there are still some issues that need to be resolved regarding the disease outbreak that can cause complications such as pneumonia.

1. Understand the transmission process

One of the issues that is still being debated and needed in dealing with COVID-19 is understanding the transmission process.

This understanding is necessary given that there are cases where people who are infected without showing symptoms can transmit the viral infection.

2. Early symptoms of COVID-19

Apart from understanding about transmission, experts are still unable to confirm the early symptoms of COVID-19. This is because many people come to health clinics with mild and general symptoms, such as:

• dry cough
• sore throat
• low-grade fever
• malaise, the body feels weak

However, these symptoms then worsen within a few days and are at risk of causing an acute respiratory infection. If this condition occurs, of course they will undergo a series of screening tests to see whether they are infected with the virus or not.

Therefore, health workers still need to do some research related to the symptoms of COVID-19 similar to the common cold.

3. The severity of the disease

Given that the symptoms caused by COVID-19 are quite extensive and similar to other diseases, experts still need to understand their severity to deal with this outbreak.

It is necessary to differentiate between individual patients who may be at risk of developing more severe symptoms and disease. However, to date several reports have stated that COVID-19 causes symptoms that are serious enough to cause death.

4. The most effective treatment

Until now, experts have tested several drugs that are considered effective in dealing with COVID-19. One of them is the randomized combination of HIV drugs and flu drugs. There are also claims from Chinese researchers that antimalarial drugs can cure viral infections.

However, further research is still needed to determine which patients will most benefit from this treatment. Starting from the beginning of treatment begins until it is declared cured.

5. Finding better ways of communicating

How to communicate in dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak is also very necessary. No wonder the public is very worried about this outbreak which is considered to be so fast.

One of the differences between SARS and COVID-19 is the speed at which information flows from social media. Although it is very good for updating information, it is not uncommon for some media to report hoaxes and create even more panic.

Therefore, obtaining clear, accurate and up-to-date information from reliable sources is essential during an outbreak. This at least has the effect of reducing fear of news about outbreaks of certain diseases.

6. Manage stress of health workers

Not only people who are experiencing stress due to the COVID-19 outbreak, health workers who treat patients due to SARS-CoV-2 virus infection are also under heavy pressure. Coping with COVID-19 while working in a regional hospital requires a fairly complicated procedure.

What's more, taking care of co-workers who are infected with the virus is something they will probably never forget. Meanwhile, the stress of doctors and other health workers is also exacerbated when they are shunned for fear of passing on infections.

The physical and psychological effects faced by health workers make them need support from the government.

7. Development of the COVID-19 vaccine

Neither SARS, MERS-CoV, nor COVID-19 has yet to find a vaccine to prevent this disease. The high and fast rate of transmission has made researchers accelerate the process of making vaccines.

Several countries, such as Indonesia and Singapore, want to contribute to a vaccine against COVID-19. However, the process does not take a short time because it takes about a year or more before the vaccine can be used globally.

Therefore, it is very important to make efforts to reduce the risk of contracting COVID-19 as a way to deal with this disease outbreak.