Table 1.

Performance of countries that adopted the aggressive containment strategy in the first year of the pandemic

Country	Deaths per million by the end of 202010	Quarterly GDP change in 2020 versus the same period in 2019 (%)11 12				Results
		Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
China	3.2	−6.8	3.2	4.9	6.5	The lockdown in Wuhan was lifted after no community cases for 14 consecutive days. Clusters of community transmission started to emerge in other parts of China in April 2020. China upgraded the alert level and the corresponding control measures in communities where clusters were identified.
New Zealand	5.1	0.1	−10.2	1.4	0.1	New Zealand’s daily case number reached zero before the government downgraded the alert level on 27 April 2020.
Singapore	4.9	−0.3	−13.3	−5.8	−2.4	Singapore made decisions on lifting the covid-19 “circuit breaker” based on predefined criteria, including daily case numbers reaching zero or a single digit over a sustained period. Considering the high transmissibility of the new variant, Singapore has tightened control measures since May 2021, banning mass gathering events and prohibiting dining in restaurants.