465 COVID-19 Cases Today (16 May): Number of Local Community Cases Has Increased

Lest you’ve lost count, you might be shocked to know that we’ve now gone through 40 days of the Circuit Breaker.

Yes, 40 days of Maggi Mee daily. What a story to tell our grandkids.

But at least what we’ve done is reaping dividends. So far.

Today, there are 465 cases.

This brings the total number of cases to 27,356.

Of these, 4 are Singaporeans or Singapore PR. Yesterday, we have only 1 Singaporean who’s infected—a 53-year-old unlinked case.

On average, based on yesterday’s numbers, he 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 4 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 1 per day in the past week.

Goody?

Goody.

But it won’t stay that way forever, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said yesterday.

Expect More Cases When Some Circuit Breaker Measures Are Eased

From next Tuesday onwards, some students would be able to go back to school.

And from 2 June 2020 onwards, more Circuit Breaker measures are expected to be eased, since it’s technically the “end” of the Circuit Breaker period, though the authorities have been very careful about not using the word “end” because we’re essentially easing certain measures slowly and carefully.

That’s when Mr Gan expected the number of local community cases to go up.

And if shit really hit the fan, some of the tight Circuit Breaker measures might be back.

He said, “We hope to prevent a large cluster or a sharp spike in the number of cases, which will then require us to perhaps reintroduce some of the circuit breaker measures.”

The whole idea is that instead of seeing a spike in cases, we should aim for a slow, gradual increase in confirmed cases instead.

That, of course, means lots of testing, contacting tracing and isolating.

Which is two weeks from now.

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