Singapore Has No New Covid-19 Clusters For 50 Days
SafeEntry and community testing have been essential measures to combat the spread of Covid-19. Though they may have been seen as a hindrance at first, they’ve arguably helped Singapore handle the pandemic effectively.
Recently, daily confirmed cases have been kept at single digit levels while no new clusters have been reported over the past 50 days.
Perhaps this is a sign of our testing and tracing efforts finally bearing fruits.
Community cases low & no new clusters
With Covid-19 still raging on in other countries, Singapore has been fortunate to have a small number of community cases.
A sign of this is the lack of new Covid-19 clusters.
Furthermore, no community cases were reported over the past 4 days while clusters have not sprung up for 50 days, reports China Press.
The number of Singapore patients who’ve recovered from infection is 57,937.
Biggest Covid-19 cluster closed in Aug
The Ministry of Health (MOH) said it has cleared dormitories with an aggressive testing routine on workers, reports Channel NewsAsia.
As a result, Singapore’s biggest cluster at the Punggol S11 dormitory was closed along with 11 others.
There were nearly 1,000 cases at S11 dormitory in April, showing us the importance of testing and tracing to control Covid-19’s spread.
Dormitory clusters contributed to most of Singapore confirmed cases.
MOH stepped up testing and tracing
In a news release by MOH on 25 Jun, they shared that they expanded active surveillance to vulnerable population groups such as staff at preschools and elderly residential homes.
Testing was supported by Health Promotion Board Regional Screening Centres (RSCs) and the Swab and Send Home (SASH) Programme.
This was done to proactively detect new cases and halt viral spread before more clusters formed.
Together with SafeEntry and TraceTogether to facilitate contact tracing, and existing Safe Management Measures (SMMs), Singapore was able to control the spread of Covid-19 and keep community cases low.
Keeping it up as Phase 3 approaches
While it’s heartening that Singapore’s efforts to combat Covid-19 are bearing fruit in the form of low community cases and zero clusters, we mustn’t grow complacent.
After all, there is still a risk of asymptomatic cases going undetected within the community. However, this risk can be mitigated by adhering to compulsory safe distancing and SMMs.
Stay safe everyone.
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Featured image adapted from Gov.sg and Coconuts Singapore.
