Countries like Italy, Brazil, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, United Kingdom
etc. do not have the necessary health care infrastructure to support
mass admission of COVID-19 patients and hence need to rely on intense
lockdowns to contain the infections. The increase in the number of
COVID-19 cases in the US and the inability to contain it is also due to
late lockdown decision of the government post-outbreak. The percentage
of lockdown days since the first infection is still on the lower side
for these countries to be on a recovery path against the infection. With
time, there is a high probability that the infection will be contained.
However, in the long run, these countries should invest in improving
health care facilities to reduce causalities during pandemics. It is
better for countries to be prepared for epidemics and pandemics and
proactive policies and infrastructure as in the case of Singapore can
save lives than reactive measures. It is evident that COVID-19, unlike
SARS, will not be controlled by the environmental factors and any future
outbreaks will still rely on healthcare infrastructures, timely
lockdowns, and social distancing for containment.