Preventive Policies to Control Covid-19 Disease Epidemic: A Rapid Review Study of East and Southeast Asian Countries

In the late 2019, the SARS-CoV-2 virus was identified as the cause of an outbreak of acute respiratory illness known as the COVID-19, which began to spread in the world very quickly. Preventive measures have been a significant issue in preventing the spread of COVID-19. This rapid review study was conducted to summarize selected countries' preventive policies and strategies in the East and Southeast Asia, including China, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and Singapore, during the COVID-19 epidemic. 

In this rapid review study, the Scopus, PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases were searched. The keywords applied in the search strategy were primary health care, public health, prevent* and plan, policy, program, initiative, intervention, measure, and COVID-19 in addition to the name of each country. Furthermore, we searched the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) websites to retrieve more key sources as grey literature. The relevant data were extracted from the final studies and categorized. 

After screening, 33 studies met the inclusion criteria. Dominant measures implemented in these countries were categorized into different categories including communication and information, physical distancing, quarantine, monitoring, and testing axes. 

Education and information, extensive testing and screening, contact tracing, isolation of infected and suspected cases, and observance of physical distancing has been very effective in reducing Covid-19 transmission and its mortality.