Singapore — Former Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) Calvin Cheng has taken to Facebook to urge Singapore to open its borders soon.
He mentions at the start of his post that infectious disease experts have identified dining out as our weakest link and that it is one of the riskiest activities. He also says that areas that were most severely impacted by the pandemic kept dining spots closed the longest.
He admits that dining out is an activity that many Singaporeans like to partake in.
However, he says, “We should be very careful about relaxing eating out activities. I would suspend rent, continue job support, and encourage f&b to do takeaways a while longer.”
Instead, Singapore should focus on opening borders to allow others in.
Mr Cheng suggests that the stay-home notice (SHN) period should be lowered back to 14 days. He also suggests that vaccinated people from other nations and regions should be allowed to visit Singapore without having to be quarantined.
He emphasises that the time to open borders has come and that Singapore will suffer the consequences if restrictions continue to be so tight.
He says that border closures are unable to stop viruses from spreading and cites China as an example; the Delta variant has reached them despite the closing of borders.
He concludes his post by saying “Open borders quick. We don’t want Singapore to become a village full of villagers.”
Many commenters highlighted the importance of getting vaccinations in order to lower the number of Covid-19 cases in Singapore.
Mr Cheng also recently commented on different theories regarding the origins of the Covid-19 virus in another Facebook post. /TISG