For eight weeks the case curve was the flattest in the region, and the containment strategy was studied everywhere. This week the figure tripled in four days.

Where the cases are concentrated

The overwhelming majority are among migrant workers living in shared dormitory accommodation, a population that the country’s otherwise dense testing and tracing regime had largely not reached.

The response has been rapid: mass testing of every dormitory, isolation of confirmed cases outside the blocks, and a public commitment to medical care regardless of status.

The wider lesson is being drawn elsewhere already: a containment strategy is only as complete as the population it counts.