Minister: Be Prepared for More Community COVID-19 Cases As More Tests Will Be Done on the Community

2020-04-28 , 9:34 pm

Today, it’s reported that only 8 Singaporeans or Singapore PRs are among the new cases.

That’s a single digit.

Of course, should we add in work pass holders, it might increase but it’s still rather healthy if we exclude migrant workers living in dormitories.

MOH has also said that based on yesterday’s numbers, on average, the number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of 29 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 20 per day in the past week.

Does that mean we’d have bubble tea soon?

Well, cross your fingers.

There Might be More Community COVID-19 Cases As More Tests Will Be Done on the Community

I really hoped the Zaobao reporter hasn’t asked the question so that I can look forward to bubble tea on 5 May 2020, but he did and the answer just broke all our bubble tea dreams.

He asked whether the enhanced Circuit Breaker measures would be lifted since there were only 14 local cases yesterday, and our dear Minister Wong said that it really still depends on the number of community cases in Singapore.

BUT.

There’s a chance that the community cases might increase.

He said, “The numbers that we see every day are sometimes also a result of the extensive testing that we do and we are ramping up testing…we will be doing more testing particularly in vulnerable areas…for example, our nursing homes and the staff of the nursing homes.

“As we do these active testing and sweeping of cases, I would not be surprised if we see more cases popping up. These are what we called ‘cryptic’ or ‘hidden’ cases, because these are people with very mild symptoms, maybe no symptoms at all, but they are in the community…there might very well be cases like that in the community.

“When we do an active sweep in a particular institution, we might very well find more cases.”

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Health Minister Gan Kim Yong added, “We do intend to step up our screening, especially for nursing homes and for the vulnerable elders in the senior homes…as we step up our screening and testing of these vulnerable seniors, you’re likely to expect to see more cases being detected, which otherwise would not have been detected if we had not done the screening.

“And these cases would emerge over the next few days as we step up our screening and testing efforts among these vulnerable. So I think we need to be prepared to see more cases to emerge from these institutions as we do more proactive screening from them.”

But at least there’s something good from here: these surge in cases aren’t due to community transmissions but they’re the “hidden reservoirs” that PM Lee spoke about when he announced the extension of the Circuit Breaker.

So for people hoping for a bubble tea feast on 5 May 2020: perish that thought and just stay at home.

In the meantime, you can watch this video about bubble tea facts and do remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more informative and entertaining videos:

Minister: Be Prepared for More Community COVID-19 Cases As More Tests Will Be Done on the Community

There Might be More Community COVID-19 Cases As More Tests Will Be Done on the Community

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