Daily Cases Remain High, Healthcare Workers Under Significant Pressure: MOH
The current Covid-19 safety restrictions have been in effect for a few months now.
Singaporeans saw a light at the end of the tunnel when “streamlining” of measures was announced, meaning some leeway would be given.
Unfortunately, this was postponed due to a drastic surge in cases.
Sadly, it’s now been confirmed that the current measures will stay for the time being, in solidarity with our healthcare workers.
Streamlining to be implemented on a later date
The sad-but-unsurprising news was announced in a media release by the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Friday (4 Mar).
During the initial announcement on 16 Feb, the authorities said the changes would be carried out in stages on 25 Feb and 4 Mar.
Some of the changes included doing away with mandatory safe distancing when everyone is wearing masks, and allowing 5 visitors to households at 1 time, instead of 5 visitors per day.
Then on 24 Feb, it was stated that the streamlining of safe management measures (SMMs) would be implemented “on a later date”.
This was because of “extensive work” involved in processing the rules, as well as the surge in cases.
Case & hospitalisation numbers still high
Unfortunately, the situation hasn’t improved much since then.
Daily local case numbers have remained high over the past week, MOH said.
The number of hospitalised Covid-19 cases is also high, they added.
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Healthcare workers under significant pressure
Due to this high caseload, our healthcare workers are still under significant pressure, MOH said.
Thus, the changes to the restrictions will be held back “for a while more”.
This is “in solidarity with our healthcare workers”, the ministry added.
Wave might have peaked
MOH did have some tentative good news, saying that our current epidemic wave might have peaked.
That’s because the weekly infection growth rate has dropped below 1 in the past 2 days.
It’s a “key indicator” of our situation, and a ratio below 1 indicates that our infections aren’t continuing to rise.
The authorities will continue to monitor the situation, in hopes that it’ll enable the new measures to proceed.
However, MOH described the measures as “largely streamlining in nature”, adding that hence,
They’re not expected to significantly increase transmission risk or affect our epidemic situation.
After the streamlining takes effect, it may pave the way for further easing of measures, MOH added.
Healthcare workers’ stress levels are important
As we are still reporting 5-figure case numbers daily, it’s not surprising at all that restrictions will stay unchanged.
We can only hope that the number of infections go down soon, especially those who need medical attention.
While Singaporeans may be disappointed, the stress levels of our healthcare workers is important.
So we think most of us will be willing to preserve the status quo to avoid putting more burden upon them.
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