Experts Say S’pore Has ‘Very Good Chance’ to Keep Community Cases Within 10 to 20 a Day If We Follow the Rules

Every day, you keep your ears and eyes peeled for the daily Covid-19 situation update by the Ministry of Health (MOH) as though you were listening for the 4D winning numbers.

And you’re desperately praying that at 4.10pm, you don’t hear MOH going: 539 new Covid-19 cases today, 125 in the community.

If you’re someone like that, I’ve got great news for you.

This won’t happen, as long as everyone in Singapore follows the rules.

Experts Say S’pore Has ‘Very Good Chance’ to Keep Community Cases Within 10 to 20 a Day If We Follow the Rules

First thing first, things like this have to stop:

Basically, people in Singapore should stop being DIY lawyers and find loopholes in every single rule laid down by the authorities.

According to Professor Teo Yik Ying, Dean of the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, Covid-19 outbreaks in other countries happened because of breaches in protocols.

Like South Korea and the warehouse that disregarded safe management measures and Hong Kong and their lax monitoring of people coming into the country.

He added that generally in Singapore, he sees most people keeping to the rules.

“Social distancing, mask wearing, I could see when I’m out in public places, most people follow these rules very properly.”

And as long as everyone keeps to the rules, Singapore has “a very good chance” of keeping community cases in the “10 to 20 range” every day.

Another expert, Professor Ooi Eng Eong, said that Covid-19 measures keep the disease at bay but is “costing Singapore in billions of dollars”.

He says that we must all “recalibrate” to the current situation.

Also, by all means, you can go out (it’s Phase Two, after all) but “don’t overdo it”, he added.

It is also important for people in Singapore to accept that the situation is “fluid”, meaning what is effective today might not be effective tomorrow.

Professor Dale Fisher, a senior infectious diseases expert at the National University Hospital (NUH), says that what is needed most to fight Covid-19 are two things:

• A strong public health response
• Good community behaviour

Singapore has the ability to “check” both checkboxes, and if we’re able to continue doing that, we can overcome this pandemic without a “second wave”.

But What If A Second Wave Really Occurs?

But then again, Covid-19 is like a temperamental partner: You’ll never know what it might transform into at the very next moment, so there’s a chance of a second outbreak even if everyone follows the rules.

Then, what happens?

Game over?

According to Professor Teo Yik Ying, if Covid-19 cases do spike, Singapore can “figure out” where the spike is coming from and implement a targeted lockdown on the affected areas, just like what other countries are doing right now.

This was spoken about previously by the Multi-Ministry Task Force in an online press conference.

A Targeted Circuit Breaker

Mr Gan Kim Yong said that when the case numbers go up beyond their comfort levels, they’ll have to look at the nature of the numbers.

Where is it coming from? Is it the eateries? The cinemas? Or the libraries?

Then, based on the nature of the increase, they will take specific actions targeted at the high-risk areas or activities.

Here’s what my colleague, GY, wrote:

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.”

Moral of the story? Wear your masks all the time unless you’re eating or drinking. And please, don’t magically decide your mouth is dry whenever you feel like taking off your mask.

It should be the other way around.