Per-capita death rates from COVID-19:

Taiwan: 0.3 per million (6 deaths)
Hong Kong: 0.6 per million (4 deaths)
Singapore: 2 per million (12 deaths)
China: 3 per million (4,632 deaths)
South Korea: 4 per million (240 deaths)

US: 160 per million (52,217 deaths..and just starting)

New Zealand: 2 per million (18 deaths)
Australia: 3 per million (80 deaths)
..
UK: 290 per million (19,506 deaths..and just starting)
Italy: 430 per million (25,969 deaths)
Spain: 480 per million (22,524 deaths)

Nations that successfully suppressed outbreak include both large and small, both island and non-island, and both autocratic and democratic.

Sole relevant parameter for success or failure is whether government took prompt resolute action (success) or whether it did not (failure).

Fast and strong response by government equals success.
Slow and weak response by government equals failure.

Every death above 10 per million in a developed nation is the direct result of governmental negligence.