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covid-19: crisis response le
Ann Francke OBE, the CMI’s regional chairs in Asia explains how the pandemic res “Singapore has had 60,000 cases of Covid-19 so far, with 29 deaths. In Hong Kong, there have been 11,000 cases and 202 deaths. Malaysia had 314,000 cases and 1,186 deaths, while Sri Lanka had 86,000 cases, 511 deaths. In the UK, we have had 4.2 million cases of Covid-19 and 125,000 deaths.”
Woon Teck. Perhaps if Western governments had also learned from that crisis, and seen how it was handled, they could have moved as swiftly and effectively as their Asia counterparts.
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Th A an Th “We must trust that the decisions that are taken re have to be based on science and not on the co The difference is staggering. wishes of the people. If the science says that cr you have to wear masks, we wear masks. If the science says that we have to make sure that we Asia-Pacific countries have much lower case have less interaction to prevent the risk of and death rates, even when population transmission, we follow that,” he says. differences are taken into account. The D economic impact has also been less severe. H Countries that have been harder hit by Covid-19 Singapore went through a very difficult patch th in April 2020, as many of the transmissions have a lot to learn from them. im involved foreign workers living in Singapore. th Following the science would require a ap At a special edition of CMI’s Better Managers circuit-breaker lockdown to isolate the cases, q Briefing, we took a deep look at what we can and fast. The biggest benefit of experiencing ce learn from the way in which the pandemic was SARS was that Singapore was very prepared for managed in Asia-Pacific countries. My guests contact tracing, and used it efficiently to curb were the four chairs of our CMI branches in C infections. those regions: Dr Paulina Chan, chairperson vi of the CMI regional board in Hong Kong; Indra as Kaushal Rajapaksa, president of CMI Sri Lanka; Singapore went through a very difficult patch b Taranjeet Singh, chair of our CMI regional board in April 2020, as many of the transmissions at in Malaysia; and Tay Woon Teck, chairperson of involved foreign workers living in Singapore. Following the science would require a our CMI Singapore branch. “I circuitbreaker lockdown to isolate the cases, co I asked Woon Teck what countries outside Asia and fast. The biggest benefit of experiencing in should take away from Singapore’s experiences SARS was that Singapore was very prepared for P contact tracing, and used it efficiently to curb of the virus, and whether we’d see more ke international co-operation around similar crises infections. in future. “You’ve got to be able to quickly isolate people Lessons from the SARS experience who can be a potential cluster to transmit, and W you actually isolate them very quickly. Now, this sm enforcement involves very detailed working,” la Most countries in Asia had to deal with the Woon Teck says. “Contact tracing has to be d impact of SARS in 2003, a disease which done so that you don’t kill the economic p predominantly affected adults aged between activity. You’re able to identify where the im 25 and 70. While it was less contagious than sources of infections are. Isolate them fast G Covid-19, its death rate was higher. That enough so that the rest of the population can cl experience with SARS taught valuable lessons ec on trusting the science around pandemics, says carry on life as usual. We learned this the very
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You can view the original article, Managers briefing here.
