Covid-19 task force plans ‘new normal’ ahead with regular fast tests and possible home recovery

• The Government’s Covid-19 task force is planning how people will live with the coronavirus in their midst
• They said the virus will likely not go away but become endemic like the common flu virus
• In the future, how the authorities respond to an infected person will be very different from how it is now
• The plan is highly dependent on getting vaccination rates up

SINGAPORE — The Government is drawing up a road map to move towards a “new normal” that may include people having regular quick tests, getting booster vaccination shots and being able to recover at home instead of in hospitals when they get Covid-19. 

It also said that the coronavirus may never go away and people will have to get used to living normally with the disease among them. This is what medical experts mean when they say the disease is endemic.

In an opinion piece published on Thursday (June 24) in various newspapers, including The Straits Times, the three co-chairs of the national Covid-19 task force said that the way Singapore responds to an infected person in the future is likely to be very different from now.

Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, and Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong said collectively that as Singapore reaches its vaccination milestones, the following are some possible scenarios in the future.

1. Isolating

An infected person who has been vaccinated against the disease may recover at home because the symptoms will be “mostly mild” and the risk of transmissions low since others around will also be vaccinated.

The country will thus “worry less about the healthcare system being overwhelmed”, they said.

2. Testing

There will be no need to conduct massive contact tracing and quarantining of people each time an infection is discovered.   

Instead, people may get themselves tested regularly using a variety of fast and easy tests.  

If the test result is positive, the individuals will have to get a confirmation with a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test and then isolate themselves. 

3. Monitoring

Rather than monitoring infection numbers every day, the authorities will focus on the outcomes instead, such as how many patients fall very ill, end up in an intensive care unit or need to be intubated for oxygen.

“This is like how we now monitor influenza,” they added.

4. Large gatherings

Singapore can progressively ease its safe management regulations and resume large gatherings as well at major events such as the National Day Parade or New Year countdown.  

This will allow businesses to “have certainty that their operations will not be disrupted”, the task force said.

In tandem with this, testing will be less of a tool for ring-fencing and quarantining people exposed to infected persons, but to allow large-scale events and activities to take place safely.

For this to happen, quick testing options such as breathalysers that take about one to two minutes to produce results will have to supplement the more time-consuming PCR tests.

5. Travelling

Air travel could resume, at least to countries that have controlled the virus and turned it into an endemic norm. 

“We will recognise each other’s vaccination certificates.

“Travellers, especially those vaccinated, can get themselves tested before departure and be exempted from quarantine with a negative test upon arrival.”

This is the plan the task force envisions, though it knows that the battle against Covid-19 “will continue to be fraught with uncertainty”.

“In the meantime, we still need to take the necessary precautions and safeguards, to keep infections and hospitalisations at bay,” the ministers said, referring to the wearing of masks, keeping up of personal hygiene and safe distancing.

The ministers recognise that the prolonged fight against Covid-19 has left Singaporeans “battle-weary”, with many asking when and how the pandemic will end.

“The bad news is that Covid-19 may never go away,” they said.

The good news is that Singapore can work towards turning the virus into an endemic disease like influenza.

“Every year, many people catch the flu. The overwhelming majority recover without needing to be hospitalised and with little or no medication,” they said.

“We can work towards a similar outcome for Covid-19… turn the pandemic into something much less threatening, like influenza, like hand, foot and mouth disease, or chickenpox, and get on with our lives.”  

VACCINATION REMAINS KEY

One of the key strategies in achieving normalcy is to continue reaching out to get people vaccinated.

Referring to Israel — which has the highest vaccination rate in the world at 60 per cent of its population — the three ministers said that the infection rate among vaccinated persons is 30 times less than that of the unvaccinated. 

Similarly, the hospitalisation rate for the vaccinated is also lower – by 10 times. 

In Singapore, of the more than 120 fully vaccinated individuals — including people above the age of 65 — who were infected with Covid-19, all had either no or mild symptoms. 

In contrast, about 8 per cent of the unvaccinated developed serious symptoms. 

Singapore is on its way to getting two-thirds of its population inoculated with at least one dose by early July.

The next milestone will be to have at least two-thirds of the population fully vaccinated with two doses around National Day (Aug 9).

To sustain a high level of protection and to defend against new mutant strains resistant to available vaccines, booster shots may be needed in the future.

Doing so may mean having to sustain a comprehensive, multi-year vaccination programme, the task force said.

In Singapore, the Covid-19 mortality rate is among the lowest in the world, with 35 people here having died from complications due to the disease.