202 New Covid-19 Cases Reported Today (18 Jul); 7 In The Community

As of 12pm on 18 Jul 2020, the Ministry of Health (MOH) preliminarily reported 202 new Covid-19 cases in Singapore.

This brings the total to 47,655.

There are 8 imported cases who have been placed on Stay-Home-Notices or isolated since their arrival in Singapore.

7 of the cases are in the community; 2 work pass holders and 5 Singaporeans/PRs.

Foreign workers residing in dormitories make up a vast majority of the cases.

On 17 July, two of the three imported cases are two baby girls, both aged one, who returned to Singapore from India.

The third imported case is a Singaporean who returned from the Philippines on 6 Jul 2020.

It was announced that Singapore has its 15th death of a patient who tested positive for the coronavirus but died of other causes.

The eight community cases reported yesterday (5 Singaporeans, 2 work pass holders and 1 work permit holder) were linked to previous clusters or cases.

Four of them were close contacts of previously-confirmed cases and were quarantined earlier.

Some good news, the average number of cases in the community has decreased from 16 the week before to 11 over the past week.

Similarly, the average number of unlinked cases has dropped as well, from eight cases the previous week to six over the past week.

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

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.

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 had 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.”

The 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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