793 COVID-19 Cases Today (15 May); Only 1 Case is a Singaporean or Singapore PR

In the last few days, the number of community cases (which includes Singaporeans, Singapore PRs and work pass holders), which refers to the people living the community like HDB or whatnot with their family members or friends, have been below single digit—a good sign.

And it seems like the trend is going to continue.

Today, there are 793 cases.

This means we now have a total of 26,891 cases.

Out of today’s case, 1 is a Singaporean or Singapore PR. Yesterday, this figure was 2.

A majority of the cases are work permit holders residing in dormitories as the authorities are ramping up tests in this cluster whereby many might have already been infected.

On average, based on yesterday’s numbers, the number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of 8 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 5 per day in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased, from an average of 3 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 2 per day in the past week.

Oh yes, we’re no longer looking at single digit, but more of the lower half of a single digit.

Chances are we would not see an extension of the Circuit Breaker, but what can we expect after 1 June 2020?

Well, dancing with the coronavirus.

Circuit Breaker is a Hammer; What Lies After That is a Dance

While the sub-header sounds like a poem, it isn’t.

Those words were used by leading infectious diseases specialist Leo Yee Sin, who’s also the executive director of NCID.

She said that Singapore has to “follow the dance step” of the Covid-19 virus as it’s here to stay, yet Singapore cannot permanently be in lockdown mode.

Agreed wholeheartedly. I’m already losing a lot of hair after downing Maggi Mee every day.

And since they now know that Covid-19 cannot be eliminated completely by a lockdown, the next step is to figure out how to “minimise the impact”.

Think of the Circuit Breaker as a hammer to knock down the curve, and soon, let the line dance up and down – not too high because we’re now prepared.

Get it so far? It’s essentially flattening the curse, but the dance is what happens after the curve is flattened.

Here’s what the dance refers to:

• Keep R0 below 1 (this means to lower the number of people one infected person who spread to)
• Proper testing, contact tracing, quarantining, isolating
• Public education on hygiene and social distancing
• Ban large gathering
• Most restrictions removed
• Tighten up when needed
• Apply highest cost-benefit social distancing measures (this means having measures that won’t affect society or economy that badly)

So yes, please prepare for the dance ahead.

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