Lessons learned from three Southeast Asian countries during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Several scholars have focused on the COVID-19 case studies in Europe and USA, leaving the people in Southeast Asia with little information about the lesson learned from their own case studies. This study aims to analyses case studies through the SEIR model in three Southeast Asia countries including Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The SEIR model incorporates two type measures including social behavior and lockdowns as well as hospital preparedness. The SEIR model reveals that Malaysia, despite its relatively low testing capacity but with the application of the national lockdown, can slash the coronavirus transmission while Indonesia has still struggled to contain the COVID-19 flow owing to partial lockdowns. Singapore, at one hand, can successfully contain the coronavirus due to the national lockdowns, and the better healthcare system. With this point in mind, it is not surprised that Singapore has very low fatality rates and significantly low cases after lockdowns. Better preparedness, the full lockdowns, and sufficient testing capacity are keys to control the COVID-19 flow, especially if the development of vaccines or distribution of respective vaccines is under progress.

Classification Schemes of COVID-19 High Risk Areas and Resulting Policies: A Rapid Review

“…Nevertheless, border closure is not enough if not coupled with other physical distancing policies (53). Indeed, a study comparing three Southeast Asian countries during the COVID-19 pandemic shows a relatively higher success of Singapore in controlling the number of cases, as well as fatality rate due to national lockdown and a stronger health system (56).…”

Policy responses to COVID-19 pandemic waves: Cross-region and cross-sector economic impact

“…Others have investigated the spread of contagion and health risks in relation to the endogenous aspects of the “attack rate” that can be affected by the characteristics of an economy (for instance its integration with the rest of the country and the world, age structure of the population, etc.) and of the respective institutions, such as the organization and functioning of the health system ( Ferrari et al, 2020 , Khairulbahri, 2021 , Kumar et al, 2021 , Rodríguez‐Pose and Burlina, 2021 ). Still others have focused on the differential impact of the pandemic between territories, regions and countries (Arbolino & Caro, 2021; Carnazza & Liberati, 2021 ; OECD, 2020 ).…”

The optimality of age-based lockdown policies

“…The COVID-19 pandemic has represented one of the major shocks to the global economy from the Second World War. To limit the transmission of the virus and the death toll most countries have adopted various forms of lockdown policies ( Khairulbahri, 2021 ) that have generated large output losses and the disruption of (domestic and foreign) value chains with a large shrink of the world trade volumes.…”