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While corona infections are increasing rapidly in Europe, things are completely different in Southeast Asia, even though it is the most densely populated region in the world. What is done differently there?
By Andrej Reisin, ARD fact finder editor
The new corona virus has Germany and Europe firmly in check again: the numbers are skyrocketing, one (partial) lockdown follows the next. It looks completely different in the industrialized nations of Southeast Asia. Although these countries are extremely densely populated and have huge metropolises, the virus has not been able to spread more rapidly there in recent months.
But while some of China’s measures would hardly be compatible with European human rights conventions, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan are democracies, albeit with different ideas about individual rights to freedom. They were less authoritarian, but still far more successful than Europe. Australia and New Zealand are also much better today.
One of the most important strategies in all countries was rapid and comprehensive testing in easily accessible test centers, some of which could be done by car. The tests were free; The results were presented within 24 hours and those affected were immediately quarantined. However, Japan and South Korea required significantly fewer tests per 100,000 inhabitants overall, apparently because it was much easier to identify those infected and their contacts selectively.
Is cluster tracking more efficient?
Virologist Christian Drosten has NDR Podcast In this context, the effectiveness of the Japanese cluster strategy was noted, among other things: in addition to the classic tracing of the contacts of an infected person, “with the highest priority” it was asked where a patient believed to be infected. Then they asked “typical social situations”, in Japan “for example karaoke bars”; in Germany, however, depending on the season, one could also have asked about carnival or “an adult education course”. Actually, the health authorities also plan this type of cluster monitoring in Germany, but it is “a question of weighting and if all this can be managed”.
When Japan faced a major outbreak on short notice in the summer, it was possible to quickly re-limit the number of new infections by targeting super-spread events. Since then, the country has continuously had fewer than 1,000 new infections per day. In South Korea it is even less than 100 per day, in Taiwan not two. Converted to the total population, this corresponds to almost 2,300 times fewer cases than currently in Germany.
Covid-19 cases compared to Germany (7 day average)
| Earth | Cases per 100,000 inhabitants | Inhabitants (in millions) | Population density (in ew. Per km2) | x times fewer cases than Germany | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Germany | 182.72 | 83.02 | 233 | – |
| 2. | Japan | 5.35 | 126.5 | 336 | 3. 4 |
| 3. | South Korea | 2.17 | 51.64 | 513 | 84 |
| Four. | Singapore | 1.20 | 5.64 | 7867 | 152 |
| 5. | New Zealand | 0.68 | 4.89 | 17 | 269 |
| 6. | Australia | 0.42 | 24.99 | 3 | 435 |
| 7. | Taiwan | 0.08 | 23.57 | 651 | 2284 |
| Those: | https://ourworldindata.org | / coronavirus |
Learned from the experience of a pandemic
Overall, with the SARS outbreak in 2002/3 and MERS in 2015, Asia was much more aware of the risk of an epidemic of a new type of corona or other virus. Taiwan, for example, had masks and medical supplies in stock. In addition, at the end of January there were almost two million masks a day, and in April there were almost 20 million a day. Meanwhile, a fundamental dispute still existed in Germany over the usefulness of the masks, and the scarce resource had to be made available to medical personnel. Finally, masks were ordered to China and other countries, desperately.
Cultural factors have also played at least a role in Asian countries. The use of mouth and nose protection is much more common there, even in non-pandemic times, partly as a courtesy to protect others from infection, in large metropolises, partly also to protect against high levels of contamination from air. Many people in China, Japan, and South Korea have been wearing masks for a long time, especially on public transportation. In addition, speaking out loud and calling on the phone is much more impolite than in Europe.
Some of the countries benefited from their insular location and systematic isolation: Australia is a continent unto itself, New Zealand, Japan, and Taiwan are islands, and South Korea is de facto too because of the impervious border to the north.
Has Europe wasted time?
Australian epidemiologist Zoë Hyde from the University of Western Australia in Perth said when asked tagesschau.de: “Countries that have correctly recognized the pandemic as the greatest threat to the population and have responded accordingly have so far controlled better. They have recognized that extensive repression is the best strategy for public health and the economy alike. Many Asian countries invested heavily in their health and pandemic preparedness systems after the SARS crisis. They knew that at the beginning of the pandemic they had to react quickly and were prepared for a long and lasting response. “
On the other hand, he qualifies the reactions of Germany and Europe more critically: “The pandemic demands a sustainable response. The spring closures in Europe were an effective, if clumsy, means of rapidly suppressing the virus.” The time that was bought with him, however, was “a great loss.” The time should have been used to configure the testing and contact tracking infrastructure much better.
