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Contingency Plan: Comparison of Health Policies in Managing COVID-19. JPHTCR. Vol 4. No. 1 (2021)

                      JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH FOR TROPICAL AND COASTAL REGION
                                                       (JPHTCR)
                     Journal homepage: http:/ejournal2.undip.ac.id/index.php/jphtr/index
                                                   ISSN : 2597-438

Contingency Plan: Comparison of Health Policies                                                     in
Managing COVID-19 in Singapore and Indonesia

Khalish Arsy Al Khairy Siregar¹*, Deasy Nur Chairin Hanifa1
¹ Faculty of Pharmacy, University Muhammadiyah of East Borneo, Samarinda, Indonesia
*Corresponding Author, Email: arsysiregarr2000@gmail.com

Abstract
Introduction: Singapore is one of the countries with the lowest mortality rate and the best
handling of COVID-19. Singapore can be an example for Indonesia on COVID 19 pandemic
handling.
Methods: The method used is a literature review from google platform with these keywords:
“Singapore Health Policy in COVID-19, Indonesian Health Policy in COVID-19, Singapore's
success in suppressing COVID-19”. The analysis was done by comparing the policies taken from
the two countries in dealing with COVID-19.
Results: Singapore and Indonesia did indeed have very big differences in terms of government
and in broad areas, it cannot be denied that Indonesia can have the same opportunity as
Singapore in providing a good health disaster mitigation system for the community. Three factors
influence Singapore's success in dealing with COVID-19: 1) having a responsive and efficient
health disaster mitigation system, 2) government legitimacy which is determined by the capacity
of the state. Singapore has a semi-centralized government with high legitimacy the experience of
dealing with pandemics in the past, 3) Singapore's experience with SARS in the past makes
Singaporeans understand very well the impact of the pandemic on their economic activities and
social life.
Conclusion: Several things can be emulated from Singapore in handling COVID-19 was the
transparency, strong communication between community and the government, prioritizing the
benefit and safety of civil society and building obedience and awareness of COVID-19 prevention.
Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, Contingency Plan, Health Policy, Singapore, Indonesia

Article History: Received: 10th March 2021, Revised: 21th April 2021, Accepted: 29th April 2021

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Contingency Plan: Comparison of Health Policies in Managing COVID-19. JPHTCR. Vol 4. No. 1 (2021)

Introduction                                                      persuasive ways through counseling,
        Based on the current updated report,                      education on information about COVID-19,
there was 115,967,664 confirmed cases of                          and distribution of masks to firm actions such
COVID-19 with a worldwide death toll of                           as social sanctions and fines for violating
2,579,775 people.1 This pandemic is a threat                      health protocols.
to the whole world, a plan and emergency                                   Social and environmental factors
action are needed in determining health                           influenced Indonesian society who had a low
policies to form a safety disaster mitigation                     level of discipline and awareness. Nowadays
system to deal with COVID-19. Policy in                           Indonesian society is more focused on its
health services can be viewed as an                               economic        interests.  Therefore,      the
important aspect of social policy, because                        Government also needs to pay attention on
health is a determining factor for social                         the social and environmental conditions in
welfare.2 Singapore is one of the 3 countries                     formulating a policy. Indonesian government
that have become a reference point for                            need to learn from Singapore where the
handling COVID-19 besides South Korea                             economy and health go hand in hand in the
and Taiwan. Singapore has a smaller area                          time of the pandemic. The increasing
than Indonesia, but Singapore has a high                          number of cases and fatal impact of COVID-
level of mobility of people, things and                           19 in various vital sectors in Indonesia, has
services, so the spread of COVID-19 is also                       resulted in the need for regulations that can
higher.3 Based on this fact, Indonesia can                        save Indonesia but also reduce the spread of
learn how Singapore reduced the spread of                         COVID-19. The legitimacy of bureaucrats as
COVID-19, and make Singapore be a role                            measured         by    responsiveness      and
model in developing the Covid-19 Handling                         transparency helps in the rapid response of
Policy.                                                           the pandemic.8. Comparing Singapore and
        Singapore is currently experiencing a                     Indonesian regulations can be a reference
severe economic recession, because its’                           for Indonesia in formulating regulations that
income from industry and transit ports has                        are right on target and have a good impact
decreased due to the impact of COVID-19.                          on Indonesian society.
Singapore is very dependent on other
countries. Currently, the policy in effect in                     Methods
Singapore prioritizes the interests of public                     The narrative review was used by comparing
health and safety and the economy of the                          the policies taken from the two countries in
Singaporean community.4                                           dealing with COVID-19. Data were collected
        Since the beginning, Indonesia                            from articles of national and international
experienced delays in early handling of                           journal publications and news using Google
COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in the                          platform with the keywords of: "Singapore
first and second cases on 2 residents of                          Health Policy in COVID-19, Indonesian
Depok announced by President Joko                                 Health Policy in COVID-19, Singapore's
Widodo on March 2, 2019.5 This made                               success in suppressing COVID-19 ''. This
Indonesia        indirectly    missing      the                   study was conducted on February 2021.
preparedness for COVID-19 handling. The
latest data showed that the number of                             Result and Discussion
COVID-19 cases in Indonesia was 1,373,836                         Based on the results of the narrative reviews,
cases, with a total mortality of 37,154                           we found several similarity factors between
people.6 Indonesia was currently in the 4th                       the two countries which were geographical
place with the highest number of positive                         location and in the same Southeast Asia
COVID-19 cases in Asia and was the second                         region. On the other hand, Singapore and
in the world7, which brought a bad reputation                     Indonesia have fundamental differences
and nightmare for the Indonesians.                                including the governmental system, in which
Currently, the Indonesian government was                          Singapore      has    parliamentary      while
doing its best in handling this pandemic, from                    Indonesia has the presidential system. This

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Contingency Plan: Comparison of Health Policies in Managing COVID-19. JPHTCR. Vol 4. No. 1 (2021)

difference leads to the discrepancy in steps                                           Singapore Indonesia
of the government to decide which regulation                                             60,020   1,368,069
                                                                      Cases
to use, and there are also some other factors                                             cases     cases
which are listed in Table 1.                                                                        37,026
                                                                    Mortality      29 cases
                                                                                                    cases
State Profiles of Singapore and                                   Source : Center For Strategic & International
Indonesia                                                         Studies [10]
Table 1. Brief Country Profiles of
Singapore and Indonesia                                                   Based on previous research,
                Singapore     Indonesia                           Singapore was one of the countries
                                 1,905                            assessed to have an effective system for
     Area         728 km²
                              million km²                         identifying each case of the coronavirus. The
                                 270,2                            Singapore Ministry of Health regularly
  Population     5.6 million     million                          updated the development of every new and
                                                                  recovered corona case through the official
     Gross                                                        website. Singapore was also very active in
                    364,2 billion      1,042 trillion
   Domestic
                    USD (2018)         USD (2018)                 educating the public through campaigns.
    Product
                                                                  They provide massive information to the
                                         Minerals,
                                          tourism,                public regarding simple but effective ways to
                                         economy,                 prevent the spread of the virus.11
                                        agriculture,
                     Industry,                                    SINGAPORE
                                           animal
                      tourism,                                    Singapore has prepared very well in facing
    State                               husbandry,
                     financial
  Economic                                creative                this pandemic. This preparedness was
                     services,
  Resources                              economy                  supported by Singapore's experience from
                    and the port
                                         and small                previous outbreaks, high quality of health
                     sector [9]
                                             and                  standards, having a good network across
                                          medium                  Hospitals and health centers throughout
                                         business                 Singapore and also immediate task force
                                           traders
                                                                  formation to deal with COVID-19.11,12
                                                                      Before Covid 19 pandemic hit, Singapore
The different profiles listed in Table 1 had
                                                                  had been affected by SARS and MERS
influenced on determining a policy. Several
other factors to complement the comparison                        outbreaks. In 2003 Singapore was
of country's capacity in determining a policy,                    overwhelmed by SARS. From these two
including the environmental factors of                            outbreaks,     Singapore    had     sufficient
Singaporean and Indonesian society, were                          experience on how to handle the outbreaks.
explored as a whole.                                              Currently,     Singaporean      Government,
                                                                  through the Ministry of Health, acted quickly
Policies in Covid-19 Handling                                     by building Emergency Hospital and
The country's capacity is determined by the                       Laboratory. Singaporean government was
Legitimacy of the Government. This                                focusing on increasing ICU capacity to
country's capacity includes the ability to                        anticipate the outbreak on the number of
make decisions and the ability to access                          COVID-19 cases.11,13
several policy alternatives.8
                                                                      Singaporean government communicated
                                                                  actively to the public using various
Table 2. Data of Singapore and Indonesia                          approaches on social media. Website of:
on COVID-19                                                       https://co.vid19.sg/singapore/clusters was

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Contingency Plan: Comparison of Health Policies in Managing COVID-19. JPHTCR. Vol 4. No. 1 (2021)

the official website to inform the number of                      light of the experience in MERS and SARS
positive cases, as well as complete data                          outbreaks handling, as well as other
presentation ranging from diagrams, graphs,                       pandemic diseases, current health policies
to visual graphics and also maps of the                           should reflect more on the fast and well-
COVID-19 spread location.14,15                                    coordinated surveillance. Indonesia has
    Singapore is a country with a high level                      been ready and understood what to do
of discipline. Singaporean Government were                        during an emergency during a pandemic.
seriously sanctioned the citizens who violate                     Indonesia currently has COVID-19 Clustered
the regulations. Criminal offence sanctions                       Units from the central level to the district
were given to the citizens who left their                         level. This unit includes Government official,
homes in the isolation period. This sanction                      BNPB, TNI, POLRI, and the Community who
was also applied to the foreigners by                             play a role in the response to COVID-19.
depriving the right to stay in Singapore. The                              The Ministry of Health of the Republic
sanction was resulted a high level of                             of Indonesia is currently unable to be
community compliance.                                             transparent in describing the number of
                                                                  COVID-19 cases due to the vastness of
INDONESIA                                                         Indonesia's territory. The tracking of COVID-
        Indonesia experienced a delay in                          19 patients has to be assisted by the relevant
preparation from the start. Since the first                       Local Government which involved the
confirmed case in China, some countries                           smallest level on the neighborhood (RT) and
including Singapore had made early                                some other factors increased the difficulties.
preparations to anticipate COVID-19                               In addition, the issue of patient privacy of
outbreaks. Indonesia still chose to open its                      data dissemination also slows down the
doors to bring in foreign tourists which cause                    tracking of Covid-19.14 Indonesia also has an
the lateness in anticipating COVID-19                             application, namely Peduli Lindungi, initiated
outbreak from the start.16                                        by the Ministry of Communication and
        When MERS and SARS entered                                Information Technology to trace and monitor
Indonesia, previously, the anticipation was                       areas around the community. Using the
carried out by the Ministry of Health of the                      application, by labeling each safe area,
Republic of Indonesia directly. Monitoring                        positive cases and the radius of coverage of
was carried out at airports and international                     COVID-19 patients can be informed. This
ports. Supervision to Indonesian workers                          application has a good impact but did not get
who had just returned to Indonesia was also                       high attention from the public. The
conducted. Body temperature of Indonesian                         government plays an important role in
and foreign tourists who visited tourist                          promoting and educating the community
attractions or travelled were always checked                      through this application.16
and given a Health Alert Card. The                                         Indonesia has implemented PSBB,
management of MERS and SARS in                                    Regional Quarantine, spraying disinfectants
Indonesia at that time had good supervision,                      and mask usage to break the spread of
which was supported by the Decree of the                          COVID-19. However, the actions taken by
Minister of Health Number 424 / MENKES /                          Indonesian officials have not provided a
SK / 2003. This decree stated that SARS is                        deterrent effect yet. In many cases, the
a disease that can cause an outbreak and                          violation to the regulation will end up on a
the guidelines on handling it was added on                        paper with stamp duty and keep repeated.
April 3, 2003. This policy was used as a                          On the other hand, social sanctions will have
strong foundation in providing effective steps                    a very good impact on society that violating
to prevent the spread of the outbreak.17 In                       health protocols can be embarrassing and

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Contingency Plan: Comparison of Health Policies in Managing COVID-19. JPHTCR. Vol 4. No. 1 (2021)

harmed to themselves. The spread of HOAX                          have not yielded maximum results, even
news about COVID-19 need to be handled to                         several existing regulations can harm the
reduce the spread of this HOAX news.                              Government itself. For example, the Pre-
                                                                  Work Card Program was not running very
Factors affecting Policy                                          well in reaching the main target. The main
Economic Factors                                                  target of this program was the victims of
         In the economic sector, these two                        layoffs and small and medium business
countries are experiencing the same crisis.                       actors who experienced the greatest impact.
Singapore experienced a more severe crisis                        This was confirmed by the BPS findings that
because the source of economy driving                             showed 66.5% of pre-employment card
came from the port transit connecting                             recipients are workers, 22.2 % were the
services. This was exacerbated by a lot of                        unemployed, and 11.3% were the non-labor
economic activities being stopped which                           force.19
resulted in severe economic depression. On                                 The target inaccuracy of this program
the other hand, despite the economic crisis                       proved that there was a miss-communication
conditions, Singapore remains consistent in                       between the community and government
serving and maintaining the health of civil                       officials and the level of concern and
society and immigrants. Singapore in its                          community compliance was very low. Some
services provides a stimulus to 5 sectors,                        of the community groups feel that they really
including      3     sectors      (Households,                    need the benefits of this program, even
Entrepreneurs and Fresh graduate, and                             though they are quite capable. On the other
Small and medium business traders). The                           hand, some others who really need, did not
Singapore government also gives subsidies                         get the benefit of this program. Therefore, the
for needed funds, business assistance, and                        Indonesian government must target its
business credit assistance. Public Services                       programs to productive sectors such as
and Taxes and Credits increased the budget                        small and medium business actors. As
for health, tourism, public transportation, and                   occurs several years ago, when Indonesia
also increase incentives for health workers.                      was hit by an economic crisis, the small and
In the tax and credit sector, tax payments                        medium business actors were the saviors of
and tax subsidies for immigrant workers are                       Indonesian economy. Besides, the increased
carried out.                                                      incentives for health workers, who are the
         Singapore experienced a decline                          front-liners in handling Covid19 pandemic
economy. Besides the expenditures incurred                        are also needed.
during a pandemic, the Singapore
                                                                  Social and Environmental Factors
government did a risky but responsible step.
                                                                           Singaporeans had used to live in a
This can be seen from the decision of the
                                                                  disciplined society, by obeying the law. The
President of Singapore, Halim Yacob, who
                                                                  discipline of Singapore society was not
was willing to cut his salary voluntarily to give
                                                                  formed       instantly.     Previously,      the
bonuses to health workers and other public
                                                                  Singaporean were also difficult to obey the
service employees as they are the front-
                                                                  regulation, just like Indonesian. However, the
liners in handling COVID-19.18
                                                                  Singapore government has a firm strategy
         In Indonesia, the Government has
                                                                  and regulations to make the people complied
made efforts through economic policies
                                                                  to the rules.
including Pre-Work Cards, Community
                                                                  The factors that influence a successful
Business Fund Assistance, and various
                                                                  policy, include: 1) Public legal awareness
other ways to save the community's
                                                                  regarding certain events is not in line with the
economy. However, the existing regulations

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Contingency Plan: Comparison of Health Policies in Managing COVID-19. JPHTCR. Vol 4. No. 1 (2021)

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