Return To Heightened Alert Only If ICU Cases Rise Sharply, S’pore Ramps Up Testing

Returning To Heightened Alert Will Only Be A Last Resort

Singapore’s daily Covid-19 figures have risen significantly over the past week, with a substantial number of them being unlinked.

On Monday (6 Sep), Multi-Ministry Task Force (MTF) co-chair Lawrence Wong issued an advisory urging residents not to participate in non-essential social gatherings.

However, he maintained that Singapore will only return to a Heightened Alert only as a last resort. Instead, the authorities will attempt to keep the situation under control through aggressive testing and contact tracing.

Lawrence Wong announces change in approach amid rising cases

Speaking to the media, Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, who also co-chairs the MTF, announced a change in approach in light of the rising number of Covid-19 cases.

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Though he did not comment on the number of unlinked cases, he expressed concern about the reproduction rate of the virus, which he referred to as ‘R’.

According to Mr Wong, our daily case numbers are doubling every week. If this keeps up, we might report 1,000 new cases in 2 weeks’ time or 2,000 cases within a month.

Citing other countries’ experiences, Mr Wong said surges in Covid-19 cases may cause ICU admissions and fatalities to spike. This is apparently no different even in countries with high vaccination rates.

Heightened alert or CB only if ICU cases spike

To bring R down, Singapore will be conducting more aggressive contact tracing and pervasive testing.

This will allow more time for the booster shot rollout as well as vaccination for seniors, who may be more vulnerable to serious illnesses.

Unlike previous cases, Singapore will not be implementing Heightened Alert or ‘Circuit Breaker’ (CB) measures.

Though Mr Wong didn’t rule the measures out entirely, he said that the Government will only turn to them as a last resort if the number of severely ill patients increases despite the authorities’ best efforts.

He urged everyone to do their part during the pandemic, by getting tested regularly and complying with the prevailing measures.

Hope everyone will do their part

Though Heightened Alert and CB measures will not be implemented presently, we hope Singaporeans will not take the situation lightly.

The last thing we’d want is for our healthcare system to be overwhelmed, like several countries around the world.

We hope residents will do their part to help get the outbreak under control again.

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Featured image adapted by MS News.