On Tuesday (4 Jan), to the surprise of many, the US reclassified its COVID-19 travel advisory for Singapore.
Was it reclassified to high-risk? Moderate risk, perhaps?
Nope. It earned the tag “unknown”.
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As the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explained: “Because the current situation in Singapore is unknown, even fully vaccinated travellers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants.”
But our government has made it clear that this is rather inaccurate.
Health Minister: ‘We Know Our Situation Very Well’
“Just to be clear, we know our situation very well,” Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said during a COVID-19 task force press conference yesterday (5 Jan).
Mr Ong surmised that the US described Singapore’s COVID-19 situation as “unknown” because it’s not aware of COVID-19 surveillance test numbers, which show that positive rates are low.
This is why the health ministry is now engaging both the CDC and the US embassy in Singapore to provide the necessary data.
According to Mr Ong, around 150,000 PCR tests are administered every week, and just 2% of them come back positive.
There’s another sign that the spread in the community is low—the presence of COVID-19 viral fragments have only been found in a few of our 145 wastewater testing stations across the country, including those stationed at housing estates, dormitories, and nursing homes.
Why Singapore Got the “Unknown” Status
In determining its health advisories for travel abroad, the CDC uses COVID-19 data reported by the World Health Organisation and other official sources.
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And if a country or region does not provide such data, its Travel Health Notice (THN) level will be designated as “unknown”, and Americans will be advised to avoid travel to such areas.
As a result, Singapore is now in the same category as Afghanistan and North Korea.
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Omicron Wave Imminent
While community cases remain low—making up 20% of local cases—Mr Ong warned that an Omicron wave is expected.
“An Omicron wave is imminent, and we need to be prepared for it,” he warned, adding that vaccinations and boosters remain key.
805 new COVID-19 cases were reported yesterday, 439 of whom were from abroad. Another two patients passed away, taking our death toll to 834.
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Our weekly infection growth rate – the ratio of community cases for the past week over the week before – rose to 1.28.
A rate of more than 1.0 means that the number of new weekly cases is rising.
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