Experts Say That There Is No Need To Separate Linked and Unlinked Cases

By
Sabrina Chua
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The number of COVID-19 cases has increased significantly over the past week, and every day, we anxiously await the news of the final reported number for that day, along with the number of linked and unlinked cases.

However, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has recently announced that they would no longer be announcing the number of unlinked cases. The reason for doing so is that it is “no longer as relevant as before, given our current strategy of living with COVID-19”.

While many Singaporeans are debating if this is a good decision, experts have come out to substantiate and support MOH’s decision.

Experts Say That There Is No Need To Separate Linked and Unlinked Cases

According to Professor Teo Yik Ying, dean of the National University of Singapore’s Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, as our vaccination rates are rising, it becomes more challenging to trace the links between the COVID-19 cases.

As we all know by now, people who are vaccinated have a higher chance of only having mild or asymptomatic infections. This results in many of them not even realising that they could be sick, which leads to their infections being unreported. And when this happens, scientists will not be able to link these infections to other cases.

Professor Dale Fisher, a senior consultant in the National University Hospital’s infectious diseases division, agreed that the asymptomatic spread could continue for a period of time before a case surfaces.

As such, it is expected for there to be more unlinked cases these days, and this should not be a cause for concern where we would need to increase community restrictions.

Resources Can Be Better Allocated

Instead of spending time and effort to look for links between the previous cases and new cases, experts believe that it would be more practical and efficient if resources were spent on other more crucial factors.

For example, there should be more resources allocated to conducting contact tracing to identify people who have had exposure to the virus and ensuring that they are isolated as quickly as possible so that the spread can be curbed. This is especially so as contact tracing is very resource-intensive and can take minutes to even days just for a single case.

Contact tracing also has a much bigger impact than finding the links between previous cases and new cases, as the former helps to curb the spread of the virus, while the latter only provides new information.

Other Data Is More Significant

If you would like to gauge the overall COVID-19 situation in Singapore and our healthcare capacity, experts have recommended looking at other types of data like the number of people requiring hospitalisation, supplementary oxygen, or intensive care.

If the numbers are low, it is good because it means that everything is under control. However, if the numbers are high, it means that the system may become overwhelmed very soon and more deaths could occur.

While we may think that knowing the number of unlinked cases is important, perhaps it is indeed true that we should focus on other types of data instead as they are more significant. Furthermore, if we want to progress and treat the disease as endemic, we need to accept the fact that the virus is everywhere, regardless of whether there are any links or not.

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Sabrina Chua
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