Insight - Controlling the outbreak

Lee Heng Guie: The prevalence of a slackening SOP compliance, including social distancing, inadequate testing and contact tracing, created more opportunities for the spread of the virus at a worrying pace.

THE public has generally felt frustrated by the government’s response to this pandemic – with an opportunity to suppress the virus in the fourth quarter of 2020 when cases were starting to rise being wasted, and instead, inter-state travel being allowed and some form of lackadaisical attitude in the compliance of SOPs in public social gatherings/ events, restaurants and crowded places being practised.

The prevalence of a slackening SOP compliance, including social distancing, inadequate testing and contact tracing, created more opportunities for the spread of the virus at a worrying pace.