Report in October 2021

Siti Norafifah binti Haji Hanipah
Bachelor of Agriculture (Animal Science),
Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam

As of 17^th October 2021:

1. a) Total confirmed cases: 10,860
2. b) Newly confirmed cases: 504 (highest so far)
3. c) Active cases: 2,741
4. d) Critical cases in ICU: 7 cases (all require assistance of artificial ventilation and 1 case require additional heart/lung machine (ECMO))
5. e) Total death cases: 49
6. f) New death case: 6

The government have started to give financial help to private sector employees who had their jobs terminated due to COVID- 19, private sector employees who are on unpaid leave for more than 7 days due to the impact of COVID-19 and self-employed or freelance workers where they get their income cut down due to COVID-19. They are given a financial help of BND 250 per month for individuals who are single and for individuals who are married, BND 250 per month and BND 50 for each dependent.

Currently the country is not in lockdown, however several control measures have been implemented starting from 7th August 2021, which include the ban of mass gathering, the commencement of online learning for all educational institutions, the closure of place of worship such as mosque and church, the implementation of work-from-home policy to all government and private workers and all social gatherings are to be postponed. Apart from that, a night curfew known as “Operasi Pulih” have also been implemented starting from 4th October 2021 until 31st October 2021, where the public is required to stay home from 8 pm to 4 am (15th October 2021). Only people with emergency or urgent matters or those who work as critical frontline workers which include shift workers are allowed to leave their residences.

For people who don’t wear mask in public place, they will be subjected to a compound of BND 100, while for people who commit more serious offence such as going out while under quarantine or committed offences under the Infectious Diseases Act Chapter 204, are subjected to a fine of up to BND 5,000. As for people who violated the directive to stay home between 8 pm to 4 am are subjected to BND 500 for each offense. Any company that fails to ensure its employee to comply with the directive to stay home from 8 pm to 4 am are also subjected to a compound fine of BND 500 for each employee. This is especially directed to companies where the employees are mostly foreign workers since most of the offences were done by foreign workers in the country as most of them stated that they were unaware of the implementation as the reason for them leaving home.

PCR testing is the most common method used in the country for COVID-19 testing. All residents in Brunei Darussalam including foreign workers are able to do COVID-19 testing for free except for foreigners who are doing the test as a requirement to leave the country. Antigen Rapid Test or ART kits have also started to be made available for the public to buy and sell but it is only for specific brands of ART kits that have been approved by the Ministry of Health of Brunei Darussalam. Since the start of the second wave of COVID-19 infection, all of the cases were identified as delta variant.

Brunei Darussalam is planning to reach 80% of the population to be fully vaccinated by December 2021. As of 17th October 2021, 75.3% of the population have received at least one dose of vaccine and 50.9% of the population have been fully vaccinated. The vaccines administered in Brunei Darussalam are Astrazeneca, Moderna and Sinopharm. The country is also planning to administer Pfizer vaccines especially for youth aging below 18 years old soon. Also, in order to achieve the target of 80% by December, the government have been taking measures of administering vaccines to the people who lives in rural areas where it is very hard for the population to go to the vaccination centres. The vaccines are given free to everyone including the foreign workers.

There have been many NGO/NPO that have helped to provide essentials that are needed at isolation centres in Brunei Darussalam. There are also a lot of businesses that joined the charitable acts as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility. In terms of online education, network providers in Brunei have offered internet service at discounted price so that all students could take part equally in their education. The ministry of education has also taken some initiatives to provide laptops and tablets to lower income families, especially to those with a lot of children but were unable to provide electronic devices for their online education. Currently there are no practical classes done.

Brunei Darussalam was able to fight through COVID-19 during the first wave last year as the country was able to record zero local cases for 457 days. Thus, when the second wave of COVID-19 hit Brunei, the population were very much caught off guard and there have been a rise in concern of whether the country would be able to fight the outbreak as there are sharp increase in daily cases. However, the government and the people of Brunei are still very much willing to fight through as there have been a huge increase in the number of people that came for vaccination as compared to before the outbreak with the hope that the population can be better protected when the vaccination target have reached 80%. I believe this is one of the good effects for this second wave of outbreak.

Nevertheless, it is hard to ignore the fact that the second outbreak have affected more businesses as it is evident through the number of people asking for financial help from the government.