Singapore's coronavirus response, marked by digital surveillance and quarantines in hospitals, was initially successful. But it's reaching a tipping point.

Edgar Su/Reuters

• Singapore applied the lessons it learned from the 2003 SARS outbreak to its coronavirus response. 
• The country built isolation hospitals, developed a clear communication strategy, and used digital surveillance.
• Singapore has seen just over 1,620 cases and six deaths, leading it to be hailed as a success story and a model for how to effectively confront the coronavirus.
• But the country is facing a new wave of spread from presymptomatic carriers — showing how difficult it is to contain the coronavirus once the number of patients hits a critical mass.
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Singapore is about 2,100 miles away from Wuhan, China, the original epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. But the country has seen relatively few cases: roughly 1,620 infections and six deaths.

Singapore's quick-moving, proactive, aggressive public-health response has been hailed as a success story. It closed its borders early, began tracking citizens and their contacts, tested frequently, and put anyone who tested positive — regardless of the severity of their symptoms — in quarantine in a hospital.

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