On Saturday, May 22, 2021, people are walking and cycling across a bridge away from the statue of Merlion in the Marina Bay area of Singapore.
Joseph Nair | NurPhoto | Getty Images
SINGAPORE – Singapore has refrained from tightening social distancing measures, even as the highly infectious delta variant has pushed Covid-19 cases abruptly, while the country moves to a long-term strategy of coexistence with the coronavirus.
“This rapid and exponential increase in the daily infections we are experiencing now is what must happen to any country trying to coexist with Covid-19 at some point,” Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said at a briefing on Friday .
Singapore has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, with 81% of the population fully vaccinated, according to health ministry data. Cases have risen rapidly, from an average of 76 a day a fortnight ago to 288 a day last week, the ministry said in a statement on Friday.
According to the current trajectory, the number of cases could soon reach 1,000 per day, he added.
But the number of serious cases has remained low. As of Thursday, there were 26 cases of serious illness requiring oxygen supplementation and seven critical cases in intensive care units, the health ministry said.
Still, the city-state wants to limit the number of deaths for Covid and avoid overwhelming its hospitals, Ong said. That is why the government is not further opening up the economy, the minister added.
“Virtually every country that has gone through this type of transmission wave has suffered hospital collapses and high death rates; we want to prevent that,” Ong said. He added that if the country can achieve it, it will not have to go back to a “long, hard blockade”.
The Singapore government has tightened and eased measures several times since May, as the highly infectious delta variant spreads across the country. Last month it began easing measures, including the possibility of bringing larger groups together and eating them at food and beverage establishments.
But earlier this week, the government announced a ban on workplace meetings and more aggressive testing to “detect and close cases” more quickly. He also encouraged people to limit social gatherings in the coming weeks.
The Singapore government said on Friday that it would allow more infected people to be recovered who are fully vaccinated at home, as long as they meet certain criteria. This includes having mild symptoms and the ability to be isolated from the rest of the household.
Singapore will also reduce the quarantine period of people exposed to the coronavirus locally, given the shorter incubation period of the delta variant.
Singapore has reported a total of more than 70,000 confirmed cases of Covid and 57 deaths since early last year, according to the health ministry.