Ministers: S’pore Should Be Prepared for a 2nd Wave & Whether Circuit Breaker Will Be Back

By
George Yang
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Experts have said it. And now, our dear Health Minister echoed the same thing, so if you’re happily thinking that the COVID-19 outbreak is under control and you can finally breathe easy, both figuratively and literally, then think again.

Recently, experts say that based on the trend overseas, there’s a chance that we might see a second wave of infections, but our strict enforcements might be able to prevent it.

After all, you don’t see people being jailed because they’ve bak kut teh in public while serving an isolation notice overseas. They’re busy protesting about not being able to have a haircut.

Now, in a virtual press conference by the multi-ministry task force since they were elected into Parliament, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong warned us about the second wave.

It’s, of course, based on the data overseas; clusters have formed in places like nightlife establishments and restaurants overseas. In addition, transmissions spiked because people were socially irresponsible, like going out when they were unwell or not practising safe distancing.

While it sounds gloomy, they are useful lessons that we can learn from, since we’ve not have a second wave. Yet.

Mr Gan said, “That is why here in Singapore, we have taken a cautious approach in easing restrictions for some activities that we know to be of higher risk.

“For others that need to continue to function like workplaces, we have put in place a series of measures to reduce the risk of spread in these settings. Some of these measures create inconvenience, but it is better to be safe.”

He has told us to be prepared for a second wave, but “we must do our best to avoid it if we can.”

Trend in Transmissions in Singapore

In Singapore, transmissions had occurred in workplaces and these people have created “clusters” after they were infected in their workplace and spread the virus to people in their households.

MOH is doing their best to isolate and ring-fence close contacts (like people in households) to disrupt the chain of transmission.

Of course, the worrying part is the unlinked cases that have popped up after more tests were done on essential and frontline workers.

However, the goody thing is that almost half of them were past infections, and 7 in 10 were asymptomatic.

“They will probably not have been detected if not for our active screening approach, as they are asymptomatic. This means that they are unlikely to see a doctor, because they are generally well, and they would not have been picked up otherwise.”

They would be looking closely at the number of symptomatic unlinked cases, as a higher number means there are “underlying transmission in the community.”

Would There Really be Another Circuit Breaker?

If you know the answer, please tell me.

No one knows yet, but Mr Gan said, “If the numbers go up, rather than a hard threshold beyond which we trigger another circuit breaker, or below which we just remain happy, when the numbers go up we do need to look at the nature of the numbers.”

And when it does go up, it might be specific actions targeted at the high-risk areas or activities.

For example (my example of course, not theirs), if many people got infected after watching Train to Busan: Peninsula, then they might not air the movie because the virus from the characters in the movie has spread to moviegoers. Instead, they’ll air happy movies like Avengers: Infinity War.

Reader Bao: Doesn’t make sense

But you get the gist. The face of the COVID-19 fight, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong, said, “Basically we will try our very best through a whole range of measures not to have to go to another broad base circuit breaker or lockdown for the whole of Singapore.

“We want to avoid that. We don’t know if we can achieve that outcome, but I believe if everyone cooperates, and through the enhanced capabilities that we have now for testing and tracing, we will be able to do it.”

So, is got Circuit Breaker during the Hungry Ghost Festival or not?

Let Mr Gan’s words end this article: “This is not the time to celebrate and be complacent. We are certainly not out of the woods yet globally.”

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George Yang
Email: [email protected]