The first wave of COVID-19 epidemics, and the government and public responses to them, have varied vastly across the globe. For example, many European countries and the United States are in the midst of explosive outbreaks with overwhelmed health systems (Remuzzi and Remuzzi, 2020; The Lancet, 2020). Meanwhile, countries such as Singapore and South Korea had early success in containing the spread, partly attributed to their extensive surveillance efforts and case targeted interventions (Ng et al., 2020; COVID-19 National Emergency Response Center, Epidemiology and Case Management Team, Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). However, despite those early successes, Singapore has recently taken additional steps to further limit transmission in the face of increasing importations and community spread (Government of Singapore, 2020). Other locations in the region, including Taiwan, Hong Kong and New Zealand, have had similar epidemic experiences, achieving control through a combination of border, case targeted and social distancing measures.