There have been many mentions of Singapore in relation to Covid-19 and its response. I thought it might be useful to outline what measures have been put in place. Apologies in advance if I miss anything or make any errors.
Since the outbreak started, contact tracing of any cases has been thorough. This includes contacting anyone who has been in a certain radius of a case for a certain amount of time and placing those contacts on a mandatory quarantine order.
People under quarantine orders are required to remain in their homes, with access to their own room and bathroom, for 14 days.
Anyone entering the country from heavily affected countries (currently China, South Korea, Iran, Italy, Germany, Spain and France are placed on a stay at home notice (SHN). They are not allowed to leave their home for 14 days. This is enforceable by law and people infringing this have had visas revoked.
Airports and ferry ports temperature screen. They then swab test symptomatic travellers.
Anyone entering the country with symptoms will be placed on a SHN, regardless of testing results.
Workplaces and schools are required to take a detailed, regular (reported to the authorities 2x week) travel declarations for every employee/student and visitor.
Ever since we started getting cases, schools have been asked to take temperatures of anyone on site. A reading of above 37.5 means that you cannot enter. This has now been increased to workplaces and is twice daily. Many other organisations, such as leisure centres, etc also temperature test.
Schools have not closed, although all are expected to have home learning capabilites in place if required.
All schools will soon have to hold a certificate showing that it has certain cleanliness measures in place, including twice daily disinfection of toilets, working taps, available soap, etc.
Assemblies are cancelled, as are all out of school excursions. Play times are staggered and preschool children are asked to eat in their classrooms.
Preschools have been advised to restrict environments to students and necessary staff only. Preschool staff and children have been strongly advised not to travel overseas.
If schools have a confirmed case, they have been closed for a day for a deep clean.
Doctors have been instructed to issue anyone with flu-like symptoms a medical certificate for 5 days.
Specific medical centres have been allocated to provide reduced cost GP clinics.
Workplaces have been asked to allow working from home, or where that isn't possible, split shifts.
Meetings are reduced - cancelled or over the internet wherever possible or reduced to minimal numbers if necessary.
Testing for the virus is free of charge. Hospital treatment was initially also free for anyone, but has now been reduced to citizens and residents.
Cruises are no longer allowed to dock in Singapore.
Mosques are closed.
Organisations providing social programmes for senior citizens are closed.
Social distancing includes a request that cinemas, meetings, restaurants etc. have seating more than 1m apart.
Tourist sites, entertainment venues, sports centres, etc. are asked to reduce the number of people.
Gatherings of more than 250 people are cancelled. Under 250 are advised to take temperatures and collect data to inform contact tracing, should it be required.
We receive detailed, daily updates about all cases, including where the cases live, where they are likely to have contracted the virus, and where they are hospitalised. All cases are, at the moment, hopitalised for containment. There is a recognition that this might not remain the case if we see a large increase in cases.
That's from the top of my head. There are probably more measures in place - I will add if I recall. I suppose the point in posting this was to clarify that closing schools isn't the first and only delay technique that the UK could consider. Although Singapore is expecting an economic impact, schools remaining open has undoubtedly helped with national productivity. We are a small country and an international hub, so we are expecting many more imported cases, but I think the general feeling is that we are fairly safe here.