Many Singaporeans might have become complacent over the Covid-19 situation locally, considering how many of us are out and about this Chinese New Year (CNY).
However, let’s not forget that we’re in the midst of another massive wave of infections fuelled by the Omicron Variant.
That’s probably why the United States (US) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has now classified Singapore as “Level 4: Covid-19 Very High”.
That means their citizens are advised to avoid travelling here.
The CDC updated its Covid-19 Travel Recommendations on Monday (31 Jan).
They have 5 levels of risk assessment, level 1-4 plus “unknown”.
Thus, Singapore now has the distinction of being placed in the highest level of this assessment.
So what does Level 4 mean?
It means that the CDC has assessed there to be a “very high” level of Covid-19 here, so US citizens should avoid travelling to Singapore.
If they absolutely must travel here, they should make sure they’re fully vaccinated.
According to the current list, there are 128 countries in Level 4.
Besides Singapore, others that fall into this category are Australia, Canada, France, Mexico and South Africa.
Fellow Asian countries in Level 4 include the Philippines, Iraq and Myanmar.
Many of our South-east Asian neighbours, however, are below us in “Level 3: Covid-19 High”.
That includes Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand and Vietnam. India, Japan and South Korea are also in this level, indicating they have a lower risk of Covid-19 than Singapore.
Countries or territories like China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indonesia are in Level 1 – the lowest level of risk for Covid-19.
Singapore was previously placed in the “unknown” category in the previous update on 4 Jan.
Health Minister Ong Ye Kung responded at a press conference on 5 Jan by saying that the Ministry of Health (MOH) was furnishing the US with the necessary data.
Looks like after the US looked through the data, they’ve decided to place us in the highest level of risk.
In Sep 2021, the CDC bumped Singapore up to Level 3 from Level 2, when we were in the thick of the Delta Variant wave.
Sadly, we’ve now surpassed that unwanted milestone by reaching Level 4.
Perhaps “unknown” would’ve been better.
Over at the US State Department, Singapore finds little joy there either.
They have 4 levels in their travel advisory, ranging from “1: Exercise normal precautions” to “4: Do not travel”.
Singapore, unsurprisingly, is in the “Do Not Travel” category.
The reason: Covid-19.
It’s difficult not to agree with the CDC’s assessment, as Singapore reported 6,264 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday (1 Feb).
Majority of them (4,352) were detected via Antigen Rapid Test (ART), meaning they had mild or no symptoms.
Sadly, there were also 3 deaths, though our weekly infection growth rate dropped to 1.64.
Looks like according to the US, Singapore is one of the highest-risk places to go to nowadays.
Let’s hope that the current Omicron wave will pass soon so that we’ll drop down to the other levels.
After all, if our neighbouring countries Malaysia and Indonesia can do it, so can we.
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Featured image adapted from S Iswaran on Facebook.
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The trials of a Grab delivery rider.
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