In an interview with ABC, Australia’s leading communicable disease specialist, Professor Mike Toole, described the Singapore government as “one of the greatest failures” in handling the coronavirus outbreak:
“Australia really focused on Singapore but Singapore is one of the greatest failures in the world now.”
The specialist said countries like Vietnam has instead achieved success, with zero death and only 288 confirmed cases – despite sharing a 1,400km land border with China:
“Vietnam is not in that situation. I think it’s a remarkable achievement for such a huge country.”
Vietnam government’s actions are now being studied by epidemiologists, and what steps they did right to curb the pandemic. Vietnamese scientists came up with their own low-cost test kits, unlike Singapore which is still fumbling with test results.