18 COVID-19 Cases Today (11 Nov); All Are Imported

Today’s a goody day; other than the confirmation of the Hong Kong and Singapore travel bubble, we also got to know that Singapore is keen to have more travel bubbles, so going for a vacation during the next CNY isn’t such a far-fetched dream after all.

Other than that, the daily report for today is goody (as usual), too.

As of 12pm today, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has preliminarily confirmed 18 new cases of COVID-19 infection.

But fret not; all of them are imported.

This brings the total number of cases in Singapore to 58,091.

Based on yesterday’s numbers, the number of new cases in the community has remained low, with a total of 2 cases in the past week. Both cases are currently unlinked.

The 3 Conditions Needed to Move to Phase 3

In the Multi-Ministry Task Force press conference yesterday (10 Nov 2020), Education Minister Lawrence Wong announced the three conditions required for Phase 3 to kick in.

TraceTogether Participation

The first is 70% takeup rate of TraceTogether.

Emphasising that the number of community cases will rise to the “tens, the twenties or even thirties”, Mr Wong said that the key is to be prepared for the eventual increase and ensure that it wouldn’t explode into large clusters again.

TraceTogether will help with contact tracing efforts which will help ring-fence and isolate infected cases as early as possible.

Download the app (if you haven’t) and keep it on, he advises, or collect a TraceTogether Token for yourself that’s being distributed islandwide if, for some reason, you’re unable to have the app on your phone.

You can watch this video to the end on what TraceTogether is:

To know where to collect your TraceTogether Token, you can read this article here.

Currently, the takeup rate for TraceTogether is lesser than 50%.

Compliance With Safe Management Measures

The second thing the authorities are looking out for before kicking off Phase 3 is to see Singaporeans “generally complying” with the safe management measures that are put into place.

If Singaporeans are not responsible enough, they’re not going to risk further relaxing the restrictions.

As for how they’ll get a general sense of compliance, they’ll be depending on feedback from their Safe Distancing Ambassadors (SDA) who are on the ground every day to ensure compliance with the measures.

Simply put, this means no more trying to hang out in groups of more than five or having more sovereigns out there.

Better Testing Capabilities

As previously mentioned, identifying and isolating Covid-19 cases as early as possible is the name of the game, and in order to do that, contact tracing and testing capabilities must be goody.

The good news is, when it comes to testing capabilities, Mr Wong said, Singapore is considered “sufficient” in that area.

This means that out of the 3 requirements, one of them has already been fulfilled.

As long as the TraceTogether takeup rate and general compliance is “given the green light”, we’re good to go for Phase 3.

Phase 3 Coming Soon

Referencing his previous announcement of stars aligning, this means that Phase 3 could kick in as early as the end of this year.

If not, it can be pushed back to Jan 2021 or early next year.

Anyway, you’ve got to download the TraceTogether app (or collect a TraceTogether Token) soon because more and more places will require TraceTogether-SafeEntry-Only for entry as we near the end of 2020 and into 2021.

A TraceTogether SafeEntry is similar to the SafeEntry system that we’re using now, except you have to scan the QR code using your TraceTogether app or scan the QR of your TraceTogether Token.

You can read more about it here.

Featured Image: kandl stock / Shutterstock.com