A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE FIRST PHASE OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC CRISIS MANAGEMENT BETWEEN MALAYSIA AND SINGAPORE

In December 2019, a virus has been found in Wuhan, China, known as Coronavirus or Covid-19. Social and business operations shut down temporarily as countries urge citizens to stay inside to flatten the curve. During these worrying times, the government is forced to provide the best responses to the public for combating the crisis during the first wave of crisis in 2020. This paper will discuss the actions taken by Malaysia and Singapore countries as well as the comparisons between the responses taken by both countries with the assistance of the conceptual review analysis method. Despite within the same region and as a neighbouring state, the approaches taken by Singapore are different compared to Malaysia. In Singapore's approaches, they implemented more flexible and relaxed plans, and the government's effort in contact tracing is appropriate in today's world, which by introducing digitalisation of public health records as well as the dependence on technology is one of the factors Singapore able to curb the virus transmission. This article serves as a guide for the future crisis in selecting the best response as a proactive strategy in handling crisis.