At the end of 2019, a new pneumonia disease caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first spreading in Wuhan, China, and has continued to spread throughout the world. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared it was a pandemic. Many countries are aware of the risks of the novel coronavirus and have adopted different measures to contain the spread of the virus. However, the spread of the virus and its impact is variable across countries including Australia, New Zealand, and Indonesia. This paper aims to compare and contrast the epidemics in Australia, New Zealand, and Indonesia, then identify the containment strategies in these countries in order to facilitate cross-country learning. We conducted a mixed-methods study to understand the epidemic and explain the variability of the epidemic in these three Island States. We have found that Australia and New Zealand have implemented public health measures, including good governance of the epidemics, communication, social distancing and personal hygiene measures, and provided sufficient medical services. On the contrary, these measures are either non-existent or implemented inadequately in Indonesia. We argue that the implementation of these public health measures and provision of medical services are all necessary to control the COVID-19 epidemics in Indonesia and other countries. We think that it is important to analyze this variable pattern of the pandemic across countries in order to better understand the epidemic and the response to it. The gaps in understanding and controlling COVID-19 between high-burden and low-burden countries were identified by analyzing their response and different epidemic situation. We will be using three countries in the Indo-pacific region which have different epidemic patterns: Indonesia had 882 418 cases and 25 484 deaths as of 12 January 2021 (the first case was reported on 2 March 2020), Australia had 28 669 cases and 909 deaths as of 12 January 2021 (the first case was reported on 25 January 2020), and New Zealand had 2 246 cases and 25 deaths (the first case was reported on 28 February 2020). The objective of this paper is to analyze the epidemic of COVID-19 and explain the variable expression of the epidemics in Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia.
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Grace
Managing Editor
Epidemiology: Open Access