Why Singapore is still in a transition stage towards endemic living: Infectious disease experts explain

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Singapore’s slew of measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 amid rising community cases raises questions over what living with endemic COVID-19 means and how far the country is from that. Two infectious diseases experts break it down in CNA’s Heart of the Matter podcast.

Daily infections have ticked up since late-August –Unlinked cases have also crept up, with several clusters involving a key essential service – bus interchanges.

The other difficulty is if Singapore opens up too quickly and more people are infected, there could be wider implications. “Other countries would potentially not want to have us visit,’’ she said.

“We’re in the transition phase … We are not yet at endemic living …everyone wants to reopen and go back to normal but we have to get there safely,’’ she said.Referring to Mr Wong’s announced measures and explaining why there was a need to “tap on the brakes”, Dr Lim said the Delta variant has been a “game-changer”.

Lab results showed this variant is “very fit”, he said. “Everything that has come out so far has been suppressed by Delta. Even if there is a new variant, it’s hard to see it being fitter,” he said. Vaccines were never meant to be a silver bullet, said Dr Lim. “But it is silly to throw away a good intervention like vaccinations just because it is not 100 per cent,’’ she said, adding that infectious diseases cannot be eradicated without vaccines.

 

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LawrenceWongST Why not ask consensus from the population, voting using Singpass? Let everyone shares the responsibility for endemic living. sporeMOH Ah Kung (hollow in Hokkien) is too autocratic, think he still in Armed Forces! leehsienloong hcsghcsg YahooSG wpsg

Could this be because MTF can’t work together? Don’t understand Infectious Disease? Waiting for WHO to give instructions? Or Ho Ching to tell them what to do?!

expert is an overused term in journalism

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